A Very Pharaonic Christmas
by auroraminamino
Summary: If your a fan of 'The Pharaoh Returns' type stories read this. Just note that the time line, or a better way to put it might be, the passage of time dosen't completly line up with the anime. Also note that this happens well before 5D's.


WARNING: THIS IS A YU-YU, YU-GI-OH (POST SERISE ON BOTH) CROSS OVER FIC. IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM THEN DON'T READ THIS. ALSO ITS BETWEEN SEASON TWO AND THREE OF GX. THE ONLY CHARAICTER THAT I OWN IS AURORA, A DAULIST AND YUSKES REPLACEMET.

A Very Pharaonic Christmas

By: Ultima Hikari

Pharaoh Atem was as usuale spending time with his friends Mana and Mahod. They were laughing at the stories he was telling them about Joey and Tristan. He loved talking about their antics and Yugis, plus the others reactions to them. He sometimes missed his friends, who were in living world. But he was quite content where he was. Sometimes he would even sneak into Koeanmas office and use his T.V. to see what his old friends were up to. Rarely did he ever get caught. Sometimes he didn't even have to sneak in. Koeanma respected Atem and would sometimes call him over and ask his advice. When he walked in the 'Yugi channel', as it was affectingly known, was almost always on.

Atem suddenly heard a very familiar yet unexpected sound. "Kuri Kuri!" He looked over at the door in time to see his friend Kuriboh bouncing up and down. When the little brown creature saw that the Pharaoh had heard it, it immediately jumped at him. Landing in his arms. It cuddled into his chest. Atem patted it.

"Hey, long time no see little one." said Mana also patting the furball. Kuriboh gave her a happy look.

"Let me guess, Koeanma wants to see me about something?" said Atem amused. He hadn't been to see him in a while and liked his pick for messenger. Normally he just sent the sprightly pink wearing Botan. Kuriboh pulled a note from its fur.

"Kuri Kuri!" it said sounding oddly insistent.

"A note? He never sends notes." Atem thought out loud. Both of his companions shrugged. He opened the note and read it out loud. "~A dualists problem need a dualists solution.~" "Hmm, That's weird. I think I'd better go and see what this is about." He then said goodbye to his friends and started the journey over to Koeanmas. "I hope nothings wrong with Yugi." Atem thought out loud as he placed Kuriboh on to his shoulder.

When he turned onto the corridor containing Koeanmas office he nearly ran into Botan. Deep in thought as he was, trying to decode the meaning of the note.

"Hi Pharaoh, Kuriboh!" she said just as perky as ever. She petted them both on the top of their heads. Kuriboh loved it.

"Must you always do that?" Atem asked

"Yes. Yes I do!" Stated Botan firmly grinning.

"Why?"

"Because your hair is so soft. What do you use on it?"

"Go away!" Atem said Jokingly. They both laughed.

"Well, I got to go. My shift isn't over yet." said Botan

"When it is, come see Mana. She wants to have an all girls night and your invited." said Atem

"Tell her I'm as good as there." said Botan

Atem nodded. "Well I'm off to talk to Koeanma." They nodded to each other, then departed.

Atem entered the office and without meaning to slammed his palms down onto the desk. Making the occupant of it jump. "My apologies. But I read your note. Is there something wrong with Yugi? Or any of his friends?"

Koeanma relaxed at hearing the explanation of his friends out burst. "No, nothing is going on with them. (Atem let out a sigh of relief) But your ex-girl friend is in a bit of a pickle."

Atem blushed slightly. "Aurora? How do you know about her?" Aurora was a pretty brunette with hazel eyes. She was the same height that he was and talented dualist that he himself had trained. For some reason she lacked confidence in her dueling abilities. They had once been an item.

"Why, she is Yuskes replacement. I thought Botan would have told you that." replied Koeanma

Atem was blown away. "Since when?!" He yelled Kuriboh jumped at the Pharaohs volume.

"Soon after you came here, she began traveling. She was attacked by some low level demon. It cornered her. She then accidentally unleashed a powerful spirit energy attack and defeated it. Yuske saw it. Then he took her in and trained her. When Yuskes friend Kuwabara turned down the job. She took it. Anyway she says that she is in a bit of a jam and can't think of a way out. She was hoping that a strategy from a master dualist might help. She still thinks that she is a bad strategist/dualist even after all that training. That's why she needs a bit of a jump start."

"Oh, well what is the situation then?" said Atem still stunned at the news that one of his dear friends had become a spirit detective. But flattered that she would ask for his advice.

Koeanma gave him the details of the case, and the jam that Aurora was in. He thought for a moment then came up with the perfect counter measures for her to follow. Koeanma gave the note Atem wrote to Kuriboh, who promptly left with it. When Atem gave him a questioning look Koeama said: "How do you think the first message got here?" Atem laughed, that was just like Aurora.

"Is that all? (Koeanma nodded) Alright then, make sure you send me a message telling me how this case ends." said Atem

"Off course I will." said Koeanma

Atem nodded to him then turned to leave. It was then that he spotted a calendar on the wall indicating that it was two weeks until Christmas. Christmas Eve and Day were clearly marked. As was always the case with the days that Koeanma had off. Atem thought back to when he was with Yugi. It was always their favorite time of year. The entire gang would almost always come over and spend the holiday at the Game Shop. The food, the gifts, that particularly great feeling that only Christmas could bring. It was the only thing that he was unable to share with the friends that he had here. In ancient Egypt there was no Christmas. Without thinking he let out a very audible sigh as he thought about it.

"Atem, is there something wrong?" asked Koeanma He quickly glanced at what Atem was looking at. He blinked.

Atem smiled at him over his shoulder and said "Nothings wrong. I was just thinking. Joey and Tristan always used to say that it was a dangerous pass time. The next time that you see Aurora make sure to tell her that she is one of the best dualists that I ever trained and a brilliant strategist." He chuckled at his comment about Joey and Tristan, waved to Koeanma then left the office. On his way back to the dear friends he had here.

Koeanma sat at his desk for a moment then arose and went to look at his calendar. "Joey and Tristan are right of course. Thinking can be a dangerous thing." he thought out loud. As he headed back to his desk he spoke to himself again. "Yet not always. If used correctly." He sat down in his chair and thought for a very long time. Then his hands came together in front of him. "Yes an excellent plan." he said placing his finger tips together. (Looking not unlike Mr. Burns from the Simsons.)----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yugi was outside the Game Shop, standing on a step latter. He was just finishing putting up Christmas lights. "That will just about do it." Yugi said to himself "I can't believe that Christmas is only a week away!" Yugi had finely returned to Domino to spend Christmas with his Grandfather. His friends, of course came with him. They were currently inside, putting the house into its Christmas best.

"Hey, Yugi!" He turned at the sound of Bakuras voice. "Merry Christmas!" Yugi smiled at him. Then jumped down onto the snow covered side walk.

"Merry Christmas to you too Ryo." Replied Yugi His pale haired friend raised an eyebrow at him for using his first name. Yugi shrugged then said "I thought that Aurora was coming with you."

"She is, she had a bit of a presents spill." Ryo replied

"So did you ask her out yet?" Yugi asked grinning

"No, you know I just don't think that she is over Kaiba yet." He replied "It was kind of odd that he couldn't give her his reason for breaking it off until she was 'ready'." Bakura thought about it for a moment then shrugged. Then they heard Aurora coming. "Don't say anything. Alright?" Yugi nodded.

Aurora arrived dragging a sled that was laden with gifts. "Hey Yuge! How's it going?" she asked

"It goes well. How's your spirit detective gig?"

"Good! I told My boss that I would only do a case if it was an emergency that pertained to Domino. He didn't like that much but whatever. He can fire me if he wants."

"You still haven't gotton to see the Pharaoh yet I assume." said Bakura

"Nope, but he did manage to help me on my last case via Kuriboh mail. So that was pretty cool." Yugi and Bakura grinned at each other. Ah, yes Kuriboh mail they knew it well. They had received many-a-message that way while Aurora was away at Dual Academy. Her spirit detective cover.

"Shall we go in now?" inquired Bakura His two friends nodded.

"I'm going to need a bit of help though." said Aurora

"Why? That sled can't be that heavy." said Yugi

"Look again." replied Aurora

Yugi did so and saw that Aurora had not just been dragging one sled but two! "All those gifts can't be for us can they?" Aurora nodded at him. Yugi then took a closer look at the sleds. The first sled was green and somewhat old. The gifts on it were, of coarse, marked for each person and were covered in standard holiday paper. The other sled looked to be brand new, it was yellow. These gifts were likewise marked for each person, however they were not signed by who they were from. They were simply signed: "from a friend." Also what they were covered in didn't seem standard. It was a plane yellow paper. The shade of yellow was very unique though, they had never seen it before. When touched the paper had an unexplainable calming effect.

"Where did you get these?" asked Yugi

"They were just sitting outside Ryos apartment on this sled when we left to come here." Yugi raised an eyebrow at Aurora. "I got in from the academy later then I thought last night and Ryo let me use the spare bedroom."

Yugi blinked at her, then whispered to Bakura: "You don't have a spare bedroom."

"She doesn't know that. She got my room and I took the couch. Get your mind out the gutter." Ryo retorted quietly yet hotly.

"Hey Yuge, what's taking you so long?" Joey said peeking out the barley open door.

"Help us with these would you Wheeler?" said Aurora

"You call him by his first name (he pointed at Bakura) and me by my last name, why?" asked Joey

"To make you ask questions and it worked!" she proclaimed Everyone laughed. Then they gathered up the gifts and entered the Game Shop. They placed them under the not yet decorated tree in the living room. Aurora took off her backpack and tossed into in an out of way corner. Then she surveyed her friends. She was happy for them: Serenity and Tristan were now together after an agreed upon break between Duke and Serenity. Yugi and Tea were also an item. ("About time!" everyone thought after Yugi had asked her to go steady.) and finely, after trying to resist it for so long Joey and Mia had finely cracked and confessed to each other how they felt. She herself had been with the Pharaoh for a short time but then he just left. She then became Seto Kaibas girl, he even got her into the academy. (He is the owner after all) It was a birthday gift. True, she used it as her cover, but she still liked the feeling that was behind it. But he suddenly broke it off for reasons only known to him.

Bakura took off his own backpack and pulled out a long box. The curiosity about its contents took Aurora out of her thoughts. He took the top off and showed it to everyone. "You turned our Monster World figurines into Christmas ornaments?" asked Yugi

"Well these are plaster replicas. I also made some for the people that we didn't know at the time." He held out the box to everyone.

Before anyone had the chance to reach out and take their ornament Aurora, who was familiar with that story, blurted out: "Now its ok for us to touch these things without us getting zapped into them, right?" Bakura quickly glanced to his left and saw that Yugis grandfather had entered the room. He tossed him the box. Grampa Moto caught it perfectly, for he had heard the conversation and was expecting this to happen.

"Oh, you like jokes huh?" Bakura said, he then dove on Aurora and tickled her until she begged him to stop. Much to the amusement to everyone in the room.

After it was over and the giggling had subsided, Grampa Moto asked if anyone was hungry. Joey and Tristan were of coarse, the first ones to answer with very loud simultaneous "YUPS!" Grampa Moto made them all sandwiches of their choosing. After lunch everyone looked at Bakuras ornaments. There was Tristans magic gunman, Joeys warrior, Teas mage, Yugis half elf and Ryos white wizard. These were the ones involved with that adventure. They took them up then Bakura gave the others theirs, Mais looked like her but she had wings, he took Mais love for Harpie Lady into mind. Serenitys looked like her dressed up like as huntress holding a long staff. Dukes looked like him dressed up like a swordsmen and Auroras looked like she could have been Dark Magician Girls apprentice. Even Grampa Moto had one. It looked like the ancient Egyptian version of himself. When they held them all up next to each other they looked like an almost complete set. Yugi gave him a knowing look. Ryo shrugged then took out a separate box, from his pocket. He opened it and they all saw a small plaster figurine of Atem. Complete with a very tiny Millennium Puzzle.

"Yami!" Aurora grunted Everyone looked at her. She cleared her throat. "These are so cool!" The grins they all had before Auroras 'grunt' returned. They then put their miniature twins onto the tree. Yugi did the honors with Atems. Aurora refused to look at that one. They all understood why, they had been there when he left and had the chance to say goodbye to him and he to them. She on the other hand hadn't.

Finally the restraint that she had for far to long snapped. "Darn it Yami! Why wouldn't you let me come to Egypt with you guys! That's all I want to know! Yami I thought I was your girl or at the very least part of your team like the others. That's mostly why I agreed to became a spirit detective in the first place. I thought I would get the chance to talk to you! Not to mention I would have wanted to say goodbye to you in person. But no I couldn't even have that!" Suddenly she jammed her eyes shut. It was then apparent to her fellow dualists that her out burst was not driven by anger like she was hoping it looked, but it was driven by sadness born from not understanding their friends actions. She turned her back on her friends and started breathing in a very odd way. They knew she was trying to hold in her emotions. Joey, Tristan and Duke were strongly reminded of the Pharaoh standing on a cliff in the desert. Right after Yugi had been taken away from him.

Everyone knew why she was acting this way. A spirit detective was not to show anything that could be seen as a weakness. It could cost them their lives on a case. She also couldn't cry at the academy, reputations were everything there.

Yugi made to go and comfort her but Tea stopped him. She put a hand on her shoulder and said "Its alright, let it out. Your not on a case and your not at the academy."

Duke suddenly spoke: "There's no shame in crying. Joey, Tristan and I once saw Atem cry."

"Same here." said Tea

"Not to mention we all cried. When he left and he looked to be on the brink!" said Bakura an odd note on his voice. On that, what restraint she did have left gave way. She whipped around grabbed Tea on the shoulders and cried into her chest. After she calmed down, many minutes later, she apologized for her out burst. Blushing deep red as she did so.

"No apology needed." said Yugi

"And don't you dare be embarrassed for crying either. Or you will force me to kick your but in a dual!" said Mai

Aurora laughed. "As if you could Harpie Girl!" she said

"Now that's the girl we know and love!" said Serenity. She gave her a hug. "But seriously you shouldn't hold in you emotions like that."

"Yeah, have you ever heard of an ulcer?" Grampa Moto said

"Thanks guys and I know you think its unnecessary but I am sorry." Aurora said

"I am curious though. Why didn't you use his real name when you were (with air quotes) "yelling at him"?" asked Grampa Moto

"I promised myself that I wouldn't use his real name until I saw him person. As spirit detective I thought I would see him. But I barely see my boss, Koeanma for crying out loud! I usually get my cases from Botan."

"As to the not letting you go to Egypt thing, right before we were due to go he got a very bad feeling so he did that fake emergency call on you. He also tried to do it to everyone else, but he got busted." explained Yugi

"Now I have a question." said Tea "What did you mean by 'Goodbye in person'?"

"Well, it was not long before I started my spirit detective training. You guys hadn't returned yet and I was a bit worried. I was sleeping and I had this dream that I was in a large field of flowers. Suddenly this red head, who I now know is Kurama (she glanced at Bakura who grinned at her) walks up to me and hands me a white rose. I looked down at it and said "How pretty." Then I was suddenly aware that I was dreaming. The rose suddenly went from white to purple. I looked up and Yami was standing where Kurama had been. "Hey you, when are you guys due back?" I asked him "Yugi and the gang should be back any day now." he replied "Huh?" I was confused. "I won't be with them I'm afraid." he said "Why?" I asked "It's complicated, but just know that I'm fine and that I'm going to be happy." he smiled at me in a reassuring way "Come on, just tell me what's going on." His eyes closed really tightly then, I think that it was the begging sound of my voice that got to him. When he opened his eyes he said "I have to go, but before I do I want to tell you, my real name." he said calmly "You remember now?" I asked He nodded. It was then that I could feel myself waking up. The field around us was fading and so was he "My real name is Atem." he said Suddenly there was a flash and I was awake. I went out onto my fire escape to get some air and found a odd two headed rose. One head was purple and one head was white. I still have it in a case in my back pack. My friend Jayden thinks I'm weird for caring it around, but he's not normal eather. I showed it to Kurama and even he has never seen such a thing!" She took out the rose in question. She then placed it on the Christmas tree. Aurora then let out a sigh. "I feel a lot better now." She turned to face the others. They all smiled at her.

"I bet that you do." said Duke

Aurora decided to get the subject off of her. She turned to look at the Christmas tree. "We need more ornaments I think!"

"Well then lets get started!" Mia and Serenity said at the same time. When Yugi retrieved them, they seized them and as they started to again to decorate the tree they spoke of the more humorous times that involved the Pharaoh. Like the time Yugi had set him up with Tea in hopes that she could help him. Yugi recalled his surprised reaction. "He looked down at the puzzle and started shouting at me! He said and I quote "Hey Yugi! --- I'm not --- you can't --- This isn't a dual!!" To funny!" The gang agreed with him, a fact made apparent as they laughed with him.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atem, who had snuck into Koeanmas office again, was not so amused. Especaly since he had Mana with him. She was laughing at him too. "I did eventually get back at him for that you know." said Atem blushing. Mana shot him a disbelieving look.

"He did eventually get back at me for that you know." The two of them heard Yugi say. Atem gave Mana an 'I told you so and there's nothing you can do about it' look and pointed at the T.V.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Really? I don't think I ever heard that story before!" said Aurora

"Indeed, do tell Yugi." said Bakura

"Well, I had given a young fan of mine a card called 'Raise Of The Underdog'. The kid asked if he could really have it and I said "Yes." I also mentioned that the card reminded me of a friend of mine." At this all eyes flickered to Joey briefly. "When Joey asked me who it was I said "I'll tell you later." Then the Pharaoh and I had to dual. While we were dualing and what I didn't know at the time is that the gang was teasing him the whole time. Afterwards Joey caught up to us. He didn't know that he was talking to Atem and that he hadn't heard the earlier conversation. Joey said "About that underdog card, you said it reminds you of someone, right?" "I did?" asked Atem "Oh yes, urmm," Then he turned to me and said "A little help here?" Then with out warning he switched places with me! Blushing, I turned to him and said "Oh well, that's really mature Pharaoh!" Joey then got a hold of me and asked if the gang was right. I told him that they were, but I meant it as a compliment. Tristan then walked over and continued to bust his chops over it."

Everyone laughed, then they laughed even harder when Tristan quoted himself saying to Joey "I can see your business cards now! Joey Wheeler exectuvtive underdog!"------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Atem and Mana were laughing as well. "See, I told you I got Yugi back!" said Atem Botan who was looking for him, heard what he just said. She was right outside the door. She decided to let him enjoy watching his friends a little while longer.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After everyone's laughter had finely subsided, Aurora said "You know what we need, some Christmas music!" She walked over to the CD player that contained about six CDs. She selected a CD and walked away. When the music started everyone jumped. What came out of the speakers was defiantly not 'Deck The Halls', but the song 'Fighting Dreamers' Narutos fourth opening theme. Aurora had seleted the wrong CD. "What the---?" said Aurora This CD was a soundtrack of sorts that Yugi had made for Atem as a gift once. Atems favroite show had been Naruto. Yugi had gotton the songs off the net. (Legaly obtained of course) "Whoaps!" said Aurora going to change her selection.

"No keep it on!" said Joey who had begun to sing along and go into some of the Ninjas tradmark poses. His favroite being Narutos "Shadow Clone Jutsu" pose.

Yugi, who had taken on Rock Lees pose, (just like Atem, in Koeanmas office, he like Joey was singing) said "The Christmas CD is next. Lets listin to this one first!"

"A very Ninja Chrustmas!" said Aurora laughing then challenging Ryo to a mock ninja fight by going into the Hugya fighting pose. Much to the amusement to everyone watching.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including Atem who burst out laughing.

Botan entered the office during the bridge of the song, she watched Atem imatate his friends. (He was still singing and posing) He wasn't even aware that she was standing there. He laughed again when Joey started to play the air guitar, accompanied by Tristan on the air drums.

On the final "BANG!" of the song someone else entered the room. Atem didn't get to see who it was because Botan shut the power off. "Botan! When did you get here?!" he said to her.

"Just now." she replied. Mana smiled at her from behind the Pharaohs back. "Pharaoh, Koeanma needs your help! He had to go to human world and well--" Her voice trailed off.

"Well lets get there and help him!" said Atem Botan nodded, then grabbed his wrist and dragged him from the office. Fast like the wind. Mana sighed in a happy knowing way, then turned on the T.V. again. Atems favorite song from Naruto, 'Wind', had begun to play. "Ironic!" Mana said to herself.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The final "BANG!" was voiced not only by the CD player, but by a new comer. Everyone spun around to see someone that they didn't expect. The person was doing his trademark spirit gun pose.

"Yuske?! What are you doing here?" said Aurora

"Waiting for Kurama to show up. He was supposed to come and see a 'cousin' of his who lives here. (Aurora and Bakura shared a glance again) I guess his train is late. My train wasn't though. What the heck are you guys doing?" replied Yuske raising an eyebrow.

"Just reenacting old times." said Grampa Moto Aurora jumped.

"I forgot that you were in here." she said as Mai and Serenity rolled their eyes. Aurora ignored them.

"Don't even think about trying to get Aurora to work a case." said Duke suddenly sounding defensive.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" said Yuske without missing a beat. "You'll enjoy your next case though, believe me." Yuske then flinched as if he had said something wrong.

"Do you know something that we don't?" asked Tea

"What do you mean?" asked Yugi

"Nothing, I simply meant the holiday. As in your next case is Christmas!" said Yuske looking nervous, as if Aurora might shoot him with her own spirit gun.

"Quite clever." said Aurora

"Yes, quite." said Bakura who didn't look completely convinced. Yuske shrugged. He then surveyed the Christmas tree.

"Tinsel, that's what this tree needs. Tinsel! Good thing I bought some on my way here!" Yuske took off his back pack and took out said decoration. "Now, which color? Silver or gold?"

"Gold!" replied the dualists Once Yuske thought about it he was unsurprised. They then dressed the tree with the beautiful golden strands. After using all of the gold tinsel Yuske had with him they plugged in the pretty twinkle lights. They turned off the living room lights to get the full effect. The tree was what they saw as the perfect example of a Christmas tree.

"Beautiful!" said Serenity and Aurora at the same time. Many of their friends nodded.

"We done good I think!" said Yugi His grandfather hugged him around the shoulders.

"So what are we supposed to do with all this silver tinsel?" asked Tristan

"I have an idea!" Joey proclaimed Tristan turned to look at him and received a handful of the sparkly stuff in the face! "I declare a tinsel war!" Joey shouted They all laughed and joined in. It was silver tinsel everywhere!

Sometime later they all laid there, tired out and covered in tinsel. Most of them were still giggling. "Why can't I breath very well?" Joey suddenly asked Tristan looked at him to see what was wrong. His laughter was instantly renewed. When the others looked to find out why it was the same result for them. For some reason, and no on could figure out why, Joeys nostrils were loaded with tinsel. Mai, who was laughing to hard to say anything, handed him her compact mirror.

"What the?!" shouted Joey Everyone just laughed harder. "Yeah, Yeah! Laugh it up you guys!" Joey then pulled the tinsel out of his nose.

"That could only happen to you Joey!" said Duke

"Kuwabara got it in his ears once!" Yuske chimed in. Aurora gave him a suspiouse grin. "Alright, fine. I may have had something to do with it." Everyone snorted. That's when they noticed that the Christmas CD had ended and the Naruto one was back on. "Wouldn't it be cool if all that stuff on Naruto was real?" said Yuske suddenly

"Oh, don't even go there. I don't want to somehow get jinxed and find out that's where I'm going on my next case! They fight some wicked villains on that show. If that place is real in some ulternate universe believe me Koeanma will find it. Then I'll never get a day off again!" said Aurora Everyone just blinked at her.

"I think that you have been working to hard my friend!" said Bakura

"Oh, you know that you would want to learn some of those moves of theirs. Come on, who wouldn't?" said Joey

"Well you got a point there Joey." The blond smiled at her for agreeing with him. They all sat up and started brushing off the silver tinsel. "Now what are we going to do?"

"I say we watch a Christmas movie while we have a bit of dinner. Then we go to bed." said Bakura who was the only one who noticed how late it was. During the Movie everyone suddenly had a strange feeling like something was going to happen.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Across town Seto Kaiba was suddenly over taken by a strange feeling. It wasn't threatening just strange. He tried to continue working, but it was no use. His younger brother Mokuba, who was on Christmas break form the academy, (he was in Ra yellow along with Aurora) came in and informed him that he too had a strange feeling. "I don't know why big bro., but I think that we should go and see Yugi. I heard that he has returned to the city. He and his friends are sure to be at the Game Shop." Kaiba grudgingly agreed to go, not only because he was in no mood to deal with Joey Wheeler, but also because of the high probability that his ex-girlfriend was going to be there, seeing as she was on Christmas break as well. They split on alright terms, but they were still in the awkward stage. Although he did have a gift for her, a gift that she had earned, but a gift none the less. So he figured that it might cut down the awkwardness.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the Game Shop, the Christmas movie had just ended and the gang was stuffed to the brim. The only ones that seemed to be able to move were Aurora and Yuske. "That training regament you have sure works wonders." said Tristan Aurora grinned at him. They then heard a knock on the door down stairs.

"Yuske, you set up all the beds for everyone who doesn't have a room here, (she winked at Yugi) and I will go see who that is." said Aurora. Yuske nodded. Aurora then proceded down stairs to the door. She was surprised to see Mokuba standing there. "Hey Moky whats up?" The two of them knocked fists.

"We are here because we have a strange feeling that something is coming." the younger Kaiba brother replied.

"We?" asked Aurora The elder Kaiba brother took something out of the back seat and climbed out of the car. He walked over a bit stiffer then normal. He thought that strange considering he owned his own company. Not to mention all the things he had to go through to keep it that way.

"Women and the effects that they have on men." he thought somehow oddly amused.

"Seto, urmm long time no see." Aurora said rubbing the back of her head without thinking. "I see that you have a gift. Why don't you come in and put it under the tree." She opened the door wider to let them in.

"Uh well…" said Kaiba

"Thanks for the invite!" said Mokuba smartly He promptly grabbed his brothers arm and pulled him into the Game Shop. Aurora led them upstairs.

"Hey guys, we have more guests!" Aurora shouted up the stairs to the gang. When they walked in everyone was surprised to see the Kaiba brothers.

"Hey guys." said Yugi Seto nodded to Yugi while his brother waved. Joey was leaning aganst the wall.

"To tired to mock rich boy." said Joey

"Same to you dog boy." Kaiba retorted Aurora rolled her eyes.

"So what brings you here?" said Yuske of course forgetting to introduce himself.

"And you would be?" asked Kaiba

"Oh that's Yuske." said Aurora

"The one who trained you to be spirit detective?" asked Mokuba

"Is there anyone that you didn't tell?" Yuske suddenly asked

Kaiba growled at Yuske for his tone. Aurora gave him a signal that told him that that's the way Yuske always spoke. "The only people that know are the present company, Kurama and Kuwabara. My two other trainers." She recived puzzled looks from the intire room. "Kuwabara wanted to teach me how to use the spirit sword. But that would blow up in my face every time that I tried to form one. Then I became inspired by our afor mentioned favroite T.V. show. So I now have spirit kuni. As for Kurama, he managed to teach me his trademark move, the rose whip. How, we don't really know. When I was anlyized by spirit world officails all they could conclude is that I have a very unique kind of energy that I was born with."

Yugi grinned "Well, Atem always did call you his second hikari." he said

"If shes the second then who is first?" asked Yuske

"I am." replied Yugi

"Speaking of Yami, I don't think that he knew that I was working for spirit world until I sent him that message via Kuriboh mail." said Aurora After saying that she saw the Kaiba brothers shift in an odd way. Did it have something to do with the Pharaoh? "Are you two alright?"

"You seem to have finely made your peace with the Pharaoh leaving." Seto said in a very quite voice that was very unlike him, everyone in the room, with the execption of Yuske, could agree to that. Mokuba nodded to what his brother had said.

"You'll forgive me, but did my hostility towards him have anything to do with you breaking it off with me?" Aurora asked She then got the feeling that she should have asked him in private.

"Well, you seemed to have that on your mind a lot. I was there you remember. Not to mention that I had tried to--" he broke off and cleared his throat loudly.

"You don't hate him as much as you would like us to believe, do you?" asked Grampa Moto

"Well, I think that 'hate' is somewhat of a strong word. Lets just say it was more intresting having him around." Kaiba replied in that same quite voice.

"You just don't want to admit that you counted him and count us as friends." said Tristan with a mean sort of edge on his voice.

"Tristan!" said Aurora in a diciplinairn sort of way because of that edge. Kaiba shrugged at what Tristan had said.

"Did you just indicate that that Tristan is right?" asked Tea more gently them she had ever spoken to Kaiba. He cleared his thoat again.

Joey then rose to his feet and said "You know, rich boy you don't have to worry so much about showing emotins around us. After all Aurora cried earlier today during a conversation about the Pharaoh and we didn't dissown her." Everyone looked at Joey in surprise.

The Kaiba brothers then turned to look at Aurora. Her cry? They had never heard of such a thing. The girl in question shrugged. Then she said "Its true." They both blinked at her. "Now if you don't mind my asking, what was it that you tried to do?"

Seto looked to his younger brother. "You can do it." he said hugging his arm. Seto rubbed him on the top of his head.

"Alright then." he took a deep breath and continued "Do you remember that little confrintation we had on the boat on the way to the finel dual Yugi and Joey?" The two of them nodded. Aurora tilted her head.

"On the way we got into a bit of a fight. See I had decided that I was the one that was going to dual Atem in the final dual. Joey came over and said that he wanted to do it. Then Kaiba said the he was going to do it. When I told him no, Kaiba became very angry and well grabbed me by the throat, hard too. We had a bit of a stare down and he eventually let me go. I coughed a bit but I was ok." explained Yugi

"Although you did have a pretty big bruise." said Joey Yugi mearly shrugged.

"Well this is why I did that. Umm now how should I put this, I was actually trying to stop you from dualing Atem. (This was the first time ever that Kaiba had ever used his real name) The reason for that was I knew that him leaving was umm not going to fair well with you and I knew that if you were the one to cause him to leave then it would be worse." Seto finished looking at a spot over Yugis left shoulder. The spiky haired dualist didn't know what to say.

"So it was a front." said Joey Seto nodded. "I should have known, Because that's not your style. I had always thought that, that confrintation was a little strange." Kaiba shrugged at Joeys statement.

"So the fact that I kept bringing it up just made you feel guilty that you failed to help Yugi. So you broke it off with me and wouldn't tell me why until I made my peace with it."

"Exactly right." said Mokuba.

There was an odd and long akward silence. Yuske suddenly cleared his throat. "So what origanaly brought you here?" he asked the Kaiba brothers. Seto looked at him in a 'just remembering' sort of way.

"We are here to tell you that we had a sense of something is coming." he said

"We were hoping that you may know what that 'something' is." said Mokuba

"We had the same feeling not to long ago. We have no idea what it means." said Duke with a shrug.

"Domino City spirit case here I come." Aurora said

"Don't even joke like that!" said Mia

"My bad." replied Aurora grinning.

"Urmm well, could you keep us in the loop if something out of the ordinary happens tomorrow?" asked Mokuba

"Sure, I think we can do that." Grampa Moto said

"Good to know. Uh, I also have these." Kaiba indicated the rectanale box that he held. It was addressed to Aurora, then he took out an envelope that said "To Yugis crew" on it. He didn't have anything for Yuske, not knowing that he was there of course. Everyone gestured to the tree, indicating the he was to put them there himself. As s silent gesture of friendship. Feeling somewhat akward again Seto did just that. His brother following him. Upon depositing the the gifts he noticed two presents addressed to him, one in a yellow wrapped long box and small box wrapped in normal paper. The same went for Mokuba only both of his were small.

"From A Friend" and who might the friend be?" asked Kaiba surveying the yellow wrapped gifts.

"We don't know." said Serinity shrugging Then everyone turned and looked at Yuske.

"I don't know where those gifts came from. I was going to make your Christmas dinner as my gift." said Yuske shrugging

"Hmm, thanks dude." said Tristan

"Why aren't you spending the holiday with your girl Keiko?" asked Aurora

"She got roped into going to a relatives house for Christmas. The relatives that are going to be there don't like me, so I came here instead." replied Yuske

"Lucky you." Kaiba said raising an eyebrow at him. Mokuba grinned. Yuske shrugged. "Well we have to go. Remember if something happens--"

"Right, we will let you know." Aurora gave him the thumbs up.

"That has got to be the most corny gesture ever invented." Mokuba said Kaiba smiled for the first time that evening.

Aurora Shrugged, "Yami and Yugi could always make it look cool."

"If you say so." said Seto sarcastically. Mokuba snorted. Yugi blushed slightly. The Kaiba brothers then took their leave.

"Well, bed time."said Yugi suddenly and that's exactly what happened everyone went to bed. Yugi going to an actual bedroom. The very one that him and the Pharaoh used to sit and talk in, late into the night.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Pharaoh had been sitting on the back of Botans oar for so long now that he was strating to fall asleep. Botan hadn't seen that coming. She was also happy, now he would be surprised. Finely they arrived at their destination. You see, Koeanma was never in any danger at all. After Botan quietly opened their only means of entry, a skylight, she carefully entered not yet wanting to wake Atem. How she managed to accomplish this she was not sure. Once in a good spot, roughly in the center of the room, she carefully dismounted the ore and went to the Pharaoh to gently rouse him from his dozing.

"Atem? Time to wake up now." she said quitly while gently tapping his chest. Atem woke with a bit of a start and nearly lost his balance. To keep himself from falling he grabbed on to her. From an onlooker it would have looked as if he was hugging Botan. He quickly placed his feet on the floor and let her go.

"Urmm, sorry about that." He then yawned and took a look around the room. "Where are we?" he asked not yet recognizing the room the he was in.

"Dark Magic Attack…" Atem heard someone mumble. Atem recognized that voice. He did a turn that one might see on the dance floor and was suddenly facing in the opposite direction. He saw someone sleeping on a bed and he knew that someone.

"Yugi?!" Atem whispered "Am I--" He turned to stare at Botan.

"Marry Christmas Pharaoh." she said smiling at him. The door behind her carefully opened.

"About time you guys got here. I was getting worried." Yuske whispered.

"Former spirit detective." said Atem nodding Then winking at Yuske to tell him that was kidding. (How Yuske could see him he had no idea)

Yuske bowed to Atem dramatically and said "Greeting to the great Pharaoh Atem."

Atem blushed and said "Don't do that. You know I don't like that." This Pharaoh was never into formalities such as these. He liked to be treated like everyone else, just one of the gang. Yuske looked up at him with a big goofy grin on his face.

"I know, that's why I did it." Atem sighed at him, rolled his eyes then rubbed his forehead. Botan stifled a giggle, not wanting to wake Yugi. "Are you ready to do this Botan?" said Yuske rubbing his hands together and looking at Atem.

"What are you going to do to me?" Atem asked raising an eyebrow. Not to mention banishing the nervs he was feeling from his voice.

"Don't worry you will be fine when we are done." said Botan "You know if you were to activate your shadow powers it would make our job a lot easer."

"Alright." he concentrated for a moment and his forhead glowed, just like it had in the old days.

Without saying a thing Botan placed her middle finger on the center of his forehead. Suddenly he felt a surge of hot energy enter his head. It was not pleasant and it made him tence. "Relax, its alright." said Botan He swallowed hard then let himself relax. It was not that he didn't trust the two of them, it was just that they had never done anything to him before. Then the energy flow suddenly increased, causing his head to go back and his eyes to close. He then heard Botans voice say something that he didn't understand. Whatever languge it was though sounded very ancient. It could have easily been older then he was. Then he heard Botan say "Yuske now is the time." It sounded far away for some reason. Yuske had been waiting for this cue. All the while that he had been standing there he had been concentrating his energy. He now held a very compact ball of pure spirit energy in his hand. (It strongly resembled Narutos rasengan) He was straining to keep his demon energy out of it. Not knowing what it would do to him. This he suddenly forced into Atems stomach. The Pharaoh drew in his breath sharply and was unable to make a sound. He took a knee to keep himself from falling. Upon recovering, he looked up at Yuske to see him leaning on Botan.

"Are you alright Yuske?" asked Atem

"Yeah, just tired." he replied "How about you, how are you feeling?" He was grinning at Atem for some reason. Atem tilted his head at him as he rose to his feet. Yuske and Botan then pointed at Yugis full length wall mirror.

Atem turned and looked into it and was shocked to see that he had a reflection! Also, he was no longer in the Egyptian garb that he had been wearing. He was in the blue jacket, black tank top and blue jeans that he used to wear. Back in the days when Yugi held the Millennium Puzzle. It was then that Atem had a very rare moment, it was a moment of no knowing what to say. He just stood there and stared at himself in Yugis mirror. Not his own mirror in spirit world, but Yugis. Yuske held out his hand to him. He poked him in the palm. Yuske then grabbed his wrist and looked to be checking Atems pulse. Atem copied him. He actually had a pulse! This time he didn't even try to speak. He gave the two of them a look that he hoped convayed how much he appreciated this.

"Well, I'm going to take Yuske back to his bed in the other room. Then I have to get back to work." said Botan They were almost at the door when Atem was struck by a thought.

"What you guys just did, is it legal?"

"Are you kidding? It was Koeanmas idea!" said Yuske For the third time that night the Pharaoh was surprised. The two of them smiled at him and then left the room. Atem looked over at Yugis desk clock. It was ten after one in the morning. He then started to debate with himself on whether he wanted to wake Yugi up or not. The dualists in question face then scrunched up and then he started to shift uneasily. Yugi was having a nightmare.

"Talk about the perfect excuse." thought the Pharaoh out loud.

"And perfectly timed too." said Botan rentering the room.

"Why are you still here?" he asked her

"I want to see Yugis reaction to you being here." she replied

"Well, ok. Just get out of sight or he might think that you're here to give Aurora a case."

"Sure." She went and stood outside the door. She left it open a little so she could see what was happening. "I'll just fly out the bathroom window." Atem nodded to her.

He walked across the room and kneeled at the side of Yugis bed. "Yugi, wake up bud, guess whose here." Atem gently shook his friend.

"I'm sleeping Joey. Go away." he whispered

"I sound like Joey?" he asked Botan who shrugged. He tried again. "Hey, hikari you have a very intresting visitor." He gently shook him again.

"Aurora, its sleepy time. So go back to sleepy." Yugi replied turning his back on him. (Atem sweat dropped)

"I sound like Aurora now?" he asked Botan who was silently giggling. (Atems sweat drop increased in sized) Then he remembered that Aurora sometimes called him that as well.

This time he knew that Yugi would know it was him because he was going to use a name that they only used for each other. "Hey, Aibou wake up. Its me! You do remember me don't you?" He shook Yugi a bit harder this time. Atem got the result he was after. Yugi opened his eyes. He then looked the Pharaoh right in the eyes, he own were out of focus.

When his eyes did come into focus they grew larger. Then with great speed Yugi was standing in the center of his bed. He was breathing as if he were scared. "Yugi, calm down. Its me, Atem."

"You look like the Pharaoh, you even sound like the Pharaoh. But you can't be the Pharaoh." said Yugi

"Yugi, I assure you that I am." said Atem standing up.

"Alright then, whats my favorite card?"

"Dark Magician."

"Whose my archrival?"

"Seto Kaiba."

"Whats his favorite card?"

"Blue Eyes White Dragon."

"Whats my best friends name?"

"Joey Wheeler."

"His favorite card?"

"Red Eyes Back Dragon."

"How many rooms dose my mind have?"

"Now-a-days only one. But when I was with you, back when you had the Millennium Puzzle, Two. The second one was mine and was an endless maze. Oh and on a side note you knew me as Yami back then."

Yugi then sat down, on his knees, in the center of his bed. He had a very amazed look on his face. Suddenly his face lit up. "It is you!" said Yugi. Atem nodded. Yugi then glomped Atem, knocking him over backwards. Atem laughed and hugged Yugi back as best he could. Botan threw them an unseen smile then slipped out through the bathroom window.

"How?" asked Yugi

"We have friend in high places." was the only answer that Atem could come up with.

"I like this Christmas gift. Speaking of, that's only six days away!" said Yugi Atem smiled. It was then that the two of them noticed how cold the room was. Botan had forgotton to close Yugis skylight. Atem stood on Yugis desk chair and closed it. "Get in." said Yugi now under the covers. He opened the covers for Atem. Knowing that there was a blanket shortage, the house being full of people such as it was. Atem jumped off the chair and got into bed next to Yugi. He then grabbed Yugi around the neck and gave him a gentle nuggie. Yugi laughed. Yugi was still leaning on Atem when he asked "So how is Mana and your other friends in spirit world?"

"They are fine. You know I really think that they were in on this."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You know just last week I was telling Mana and Mahod about the victory dance that Joey and Tristan had come up with while we were in the capsule monster world. They were rolling!" Atem looked down at Yugi to see his reaction. Yugi was snuggled up next to him fast asleep again. Atem gave Yugi a small hug and went to sleep as well.

The next morning everyone woke up. Right away Aurora headed for the bathroom. Yuske was the last to wake. That record had once belonged to Joey. Also he looked a bit pale.

"Are you ok Yuske?" asked Mai

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said with his trademark grin. "I guess I over did it last night." he mumbled to himself. No one had a clue what he meant.

"I know that Yugi is awake by now. I wonder why he hasn't come out of his room yet." said Tea Yuskes grin broadened. Duke raised an eyebrow at him. Yugi then came out. He had a grin on his face that was identical to Yuskes.

"You sure look to be in a good mood this morning Yugi." said Bakura

"The day is young though." said Tristan jokingly

"We have the ultimate in early Christmas gifts currently sleeping in my room." said Yugi

"Did Pharaoh the cat, pet to the Slifer Dorm at the acadamey, stow away in Auroras back pack again?" asked Bakura. Mai shot him an odd look. "That happened once. That was a odd day. Not to mention some of the Slifers got mad because they thought that Aurora had kidnapped their cat."

"Nope, Pharaoh Kitty (Auroras nickname for him) is not the one who is sleeping in my bedroom." said Yugi signaling them to follow him. They did so and entered the room. There was a human shaped lump on Yugis bed.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Pharaoh was in Yugis closet looking for something that he had left there. "I wonder if he found it." he whispered to himself. He then opened a small secret compartment that he once made. He reached in and took out a bag of what he liked to call shadow sugar. It was something that he created back in his sugar addiction days. It was sugar incrusted with shadow magic, also it was about ten times stronger as any normal sugar you could ever buy. Atem was surprised that Yugi had never discovered his last remaining bag. Yugi never did like Atems strange addiction to sugar, as the Pharaoh was liable to break things when he was sugar high.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yugi went up to the bed and ripped off the covers saying "Wake up!" but all he found was a pillow. " Hey, where did he go?"

"I knew it, Yugi was pulling our leg. Come on guys, lets go get some breakfast." said Joey turning to leave the room.

"Ow, stupid iceskate!" they all heard the shout come from the closet. They all looked at it. Yugi went over and opened the door.

"Oh! There you are." said Yugi He then opened the door so the others could see who was in there. The intire gangs jaw dropped to see Atem standing there on one foot. His right. The foot that he was not standing on, his left, was bleeding because he had stepped on the spiked brake of one on Yugis iceskates.

"I was just umm, uhh hi how are you today?" He said hiding the bag of shadow sugar behind his back. (*Note: I did not intend to offend, is joke.*)

"Look at that gang, the Pharaoh is in the closet! I wonder if he will ever come out!" said Yuske suddenly. Everyone burst out laughing. Atem was not amused, but sadly he didn't have a comeback so he remained silent. After hiding the sugar under the back of his tank top Atem hopped out of the closet.

"Don't even say it." he said pointing at Yuske who had at once opened his mouth again. Yuske snapped his fingers in a 'darn it!' sort of way. "Can we fix this thing?" he asked indicating his bleeding foot.

"Oh, right!" Joey caught Atem as he lost his balance

"I'll go get Aurora. You guys head for the living room." said Yugi. They did just that. Yugi knocked on the door to the bathroom.

"Don't come in here, trust me the smell is something else!" came Auroras voice.

"Have you been eating out with Tristan and Serenity again?"

"If that were true it wouldn't be so spicy in here."

"Well we need your healing expertise. One of our friends is bleeding." Yugi said through the door There was a pause.

"I'll be out in a minuet." came her voice which sounded worried. She came out a moment later. Without even noticing Atem she journyed across the room to her back pack and took out the gauze, med-tape, medicine and the other medical supplies she always kept in there. "Now whose the one that needs mending?" Aurora inquired turning her head just enough to see Yugi, who promptly pointed to the injured. Aurora stood up and turned to see who Yugi was pointing at. Upon sighting the Pharaoh she dropped what she held and just stared. It was then that Grampa Moto came into the room, he was carrying a tray that had their breakfast on it. He saw Auroras stunned expression.

"Are you alright." he asked

She pointed at Atem and said "Its him." Grampa Moto looked over and drooped the tray. Aurora snapped out of it and caught the tray just before it hit the ground.

"I've never seen you do that before." said an impressed Yuske.

"That's because I've never done that before." said Aurora "I always seem to get some kind of boost when ever Yami is around. Sometimes it's speed, other times it's power. I don't really understand it."

"Maybe its some kind of a yin-yang effect. A creature of light, (he pointed at her) being near a creature of well, not so light. Well darkness, but not evil. (he glanced at Atem)" said Yuske Atem raised an amused eyebrow at him, but didn't comment.

"How?" asked Grampa Moto looking at Atem

"Like I told Yugi at one in the morning: 'We have friends in high places'." he replied

"Did you have something to do with this?" Aurora asked Yuske.

"I may have donated a little energy to the cause." replied the former spirit detective smiling.

"Well, that explains you inability to wake up this morning." said Mia.

"So then what's Joeys reason for the rest of the time?" asked Duke

"He's just lazy." replied Tristan. Even Serenity laughed.

"Sis, your supposed to be on my side." Joey mumbled

"So this is my next case? I have to watch him and keep him out of trouble?" asked the current spirit detective

"Yup, I said that you would enjoy your next case didn't I?" said Yuske smiling

When no one was looking at him, Atem deposited his shadow surgar in yet another one of his hiding places. It was then he chose to speak again: "I don't mean to spoil the moment here but could someone take care of my still bleeding foot before I end up back in spirit world because of my own stupidity?"

"Oh right! Sorry!" said Aurora putting down the tray and scooping up the supplies she had dropped.

"What were you doing in the closet anyway?" asked Tea

Atem thought fast. "I heard you all coming and wanted to surprise you." he replied Aurora was very amused to hear that he was in the closet. Seeing her grin Atem said "Don't even start. Yuske already got me. You know you are just as bad as he is." Aurora shrugged in an amused way.

She then started to treat Atems wound. She wiped it clean of blood then put some peroxide on it. Then she applied the medicine and put on some gauze. After indicating to him to hold it in place she put some tape on it. It came up to the side of his foot a little so it would stay on when he walked around. "Ok, now I'm going to use my energy. I'm not to good at this so it won't heal it completely. Which is why I dressed it first. But it should cut the healing time in half."

"Where did you learn how to do this?" asked the Pharaoh

"My friend Yukina taught me. But I need more training and practice."

"You need more training and practice? Are you sure that his foot isn't going to blow up?"

"Joey!" shouted Tristan

Mia smacked him upside the head. Aurora was just about to do it when he said that. She put her hands in her lap nervously and said "I really didn't need that image just now." She looked at the floor, she had a bit of a stomachache because it was a friends appendage in question.

"Oh. Look what you did Joey!" said Duke

"My bad." he said

Atem signaled his friends to calm down. Then he looked at his healer and said "You have been perfect so far. I don't see how this wouldn't go well. Besides I trust you."

"Really?" She inquired looking him in the face

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" he asked mildly surprised at her question.

"Well, alright." she replied. After shooting Joey a venomous glare, (which caused him to blush slightly and look at the floor) she got a little closer to Atem and put a hand on the bottom of his wounded foot. She concentrated energy there and let it flow. Atem felt a warm soothing sensation on his wound. When Aurora let out a deep breath it was gone. She rubbed her forehead in a tired sort of way.

"You alright?" Atem asked

"Yeah, doing that always has a strong effect on me. Like I said I need more training in the healing arts." replied Aurora

"Having some confience would also help." Atem said. She shrugged, then looked at him as if suddenly unnerved. "What's wrong?"

"Umm, Well I…..after you left I uh…"

"She ended up getting hooked up with Seto Kaiba." said Yuske in an 'Oh just tell him' sort of way. She finched and blushed.

"Well, now I can't help feeling that I was cheating on you or something." said Aurora standing up and going to move away from Atem. He took her hand before she got to far. Her blush intensified.

"I already knew that. I sometimes sneak a peek at what you guys are up to via Koeanmas T.V. More to the point I of course would want you to move on. Just as long as you didn't forget about me."

"Really? (Atem nodded) Well, in that case I don't know weather I should hug you, hit you or smooch you. The hit would be for leaving so suddenly like that." said Aurora with a wink and sigh of relief as she was expecting anger.

"Why not try all three?" asked Grampa Moto sarcastically

"Oh, yeah thanks a lot!" said Atem smiling

"Hey, good idea!" Aurora said promptly. She then climbed on his lap gave him a really tight hug, (so tight in fact that he coughed once or twice) bopped him on the shoulder semi-hard then kissed him on the forehead just like she used to. "By the way, thanks for helping me with my last case, Yam uhh Atem." The gang smiled at the use of his name.

"Anytime." he replied They all just sat in contented silence for a few minutes.

"Well, you know because of my hostility towards you, Kaiba broke it off." Aurora said raising from Atems lap. She knew his legs would be falling asleep soon.

"See, that I didn't know." replied Atem

"Oh, well. Everything will evetully work its self out." said Yugi winking at Bakura. He blinked at Yugi.

"Umm, breakfast time!" said Bakura as he spun around and made for the trey. What his friends didn't see is that he was blushing so much that the roots of his hair had turned pink.

During breakfast Bakura asked "So, did you know that you were going to end up here?"

"Nope, I was just as surprised as you are. When I ran into Botan she told me that Koeanma was in trouble. Seeing as we have become friends she knew that I would come running. She's clever or maybe she's just tricky I can't decide!" Atem replied He glanced over at the Christmas tree. "You guys sure did a good job on that, I like the 'us' ornaments. And I see you found the gifts that I sent too."

"Wait those were yours?" asked Joey

"Yup, via Botan mail! All my friends in spirit world helped me to make them. Or maybe 'forge them' might be a better way to put it." he said with a knowing grin.

"Oh, now your just tormenting us." said Tristan

Atem laughed and said "You got that right."

"Well, why didn't you sighn them?" asked Serenity

"Because I knew once you opened them you would know that they were from me."

"Now your really getting to us." said Duke

"Yup, and I'm enjoying every minute of it."

"Mean!" said Aurora smiling. Atem shrugged and winked.

"So, what was with that creature of light comment from before Yuske?" asked Mia

"That's my theory on what that unique energy that Aurora was born with is. I mean, we all know that there is dark power. Or as you guys call it shadow magic. So of course there has to be light power too. And unlike most of us, where our energy which is about half light, Aurora is all light. And that's why she would get a boost when Atem is near by since he is a creature of darkness. Likewise he gets a boost when Aurora is around." stated Yuske

"Are you sure it's not because they have a thing for each other?" asked Mia

"I really like that theory, Yuske." said Atem "But I can't be pure darkness because I would be evil right?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that." said Yuske

"I think the only difference between a creature of darkness that is evil and one who isn't is weather or not they have good friends." said Aurora sounding remarkably like Tea.

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Tea said

"And as to that fact that she can learn to do things others can't, such as Kuramas rose whip?" asked Duke

"Light energy is the most adaptable of all energies." Ryo spoke up suddenly. Everyone looked at him. "I've been doing some research on the subject as requested by Kurama. Also, if Yuskes theory is true that would make Aurora, Yugi and I very, very rare. Even more rare would be the fact that we all know each other." He was deep in thought as he spoke. Sounding remarkably like the red headed, Kurama.

"Bakura and Yugi?" asked Yuske

"Yup, Yugi is my light. Or as we like to say hikari and Ryo is tomb robber Bakuras hikari." Atem shut right up when he saw how Ryo reacted. His eyes closed tightly and he shuddered. "But he is no more so we don't have to worry about him." he then added in a rush.

"That name thing is weird. That guys first name being his last name." said Yuske

"Why do you think he lets us use his first name now-a-days?" said Aurora Yuske nodded thoughtfully.

After breakfast Atem suggested that they all go to the park. He wanted to show them all that he too had become inspired by Naruto. (Grampa Moto rolled his eyes) On their way out Aurora remembered, "Oops, we have to call the Kaiba brothers and fill them in on what happened."

As Atem stared at her, confussed, Grampa Moto said that he would call and tell them to head over there. They then grabbed their coats and headed for the park, explaining to the Pharaoh the events of the night before.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mokuba had just finished convincing his older brother to take a long Christmas break and was sitting down next to him watching the morning news when the phone rang. "Hey, guys you should head over to the park. That "something is coming" sence was accurate." said Grampa Motos voice.

"Then why do we have to go there?" asked Kaiba Mokuba suddenly gasped

"That's why Seto!" he said suddenly

Some T.V. newscaster that was doing a report on some Christmas disply in a section of the park when she saw that Yugi and "his right hand man Joey Wheeler" (her words) had returned to the city and had started to interveiw them. Joey was of course haming it up and Yugi was nervously trying to answer her questions as fast a possible, but that's not who the Kaiba brothers were interested in. They saw someone who was definitely not Yugi, but had a hair style the was freakishly similar to his. He was quickly trying to pull up his hood. Yet he wasn't quick enough. The newscaster noticed. "So is there a reason for that choice in hair styles?" she asked moving her microphone close to him so he could answer.

Without missing a beat he said "I'm just a really big Yugi Fan. Long live the king of games!" The gang smiled at him for that.

"Well said, now back to you in the studio." the newscaster said to the camera.

"How is……he here?" Seto asked Mokuba surprise eched all over his face.

"To the park so that we may find out!" said Mokuba dramatically. Kaiba raised an eyebrow at him. Mokuba just shrugged and laughed.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finely the gang was in a somewhat remote section of the park. Yuske had left on the way saying that he had to go and look for Kurama. Bakura had an odd grin on his face, but no one really noticed because it had just started to snow.

"Ok, its time to watch the Pharaoh show off." said Aurora Atem had told them on the way that he, Mana and Mahod learned how to do some of the ninjas moves, with of course their own spin on it. "Do you dual any more my friend?"

"Of course, we do this when we need a bit of a change in pace." he replied smiling He then assumed a stance the one might see Kakashi do on the show, complete with closed eyes. What ever he was going to do they didn't get to see because he got hit in the head by a snowball. He shook the snow out of his hair and looked in the direction it had come from. He saw Joey standing there, flexing triumphantly. "Oh, want to play do you?" Atem reached down and was grabbed snow in both of his hands.

"You can't defeat me in a dual of snow so don't even try!" Joey exclaimed

"Oh, really?" Atem asked not yet standing up. Without even waiting for a reply his forehead flashed and he stood up both hands full of snow. Behind him about a hundred more snowballs rose up, suspended in the air by shadow magic.

"Oh, I'm dead!" shouted Joey right before he was assaulted by a barrage of snowballs.

The Pharaoh ginned evilly then yelled "Snowball fight!" They all began pelting each other with the ammunition of winter. Atem being the best at it by far because he was the most apt to have plenty of ammo at the ready.

They only stopped when they heard someone say: "How did this happen?" They all turned around to see the Kaiba brothers standing there. Obviously Setos question was to mean the Pharaohs presence.

"We have friends in high places. Now arm yourselves or prepare for obliteration!" said Aurora arming herself with yet another snowball.

"Don't worry Seto, I'll protect you!" shouted Mokuba attacking her with his own snowball. And the winter game began again. Kaiba staying out of it until he faced the three man snowball firing squad of Joey, Tristan and Duke. Eventually they all got tired and called a truce. Atem jumped back first into a snow bank and made a snow angle.

"You just couldn't resist doing that, could you?" Kaiba asked him

"Nope, I guess not." Atem said sitting up

"So why are you here?" asked Mokuba

"Christmas gift." Atem shrugged

"So what did you want to show us?" asked Tea

"Ninja movies. Dualist style!" he replied He then got off his snow bank and went to the middle of their 'clearing'. "Ok, this one is for the dragon fans. And you know who you are so come here you three." Joey immediately jumped up and Mokuba had to push his brother over.

When Aurora went to join them Duke taped her shoulder. "I thought that you were the worlds biggest Dark Magician Girl fan."

"I am and she's become a bit of a trademark of mine at the academy. Heck she's even been known to visit me from time to time. But I also have another trademark and it's a white, light attribute dragon called Magna-Slash Dragon. Its also pretty strong too. It has like twenty four hundred attack points."

"And dose this dual monster visit you as well?" asked Mia

"No, wish it would though." Kaiba was giving her an odd look. "Oh don't you even start. You know I've sent you stuff via Kuriboh mail. And if you tick me off about it I'll make sure that your in a meeting the next time I do it."

Joey grinned evilly at him and said "She'd do it too."

"Yeah that's what scares me." Kaiba replied The three of them then went to stand next to Atem.

"Alright, this is my take on water dragon jutsu. Only of coarse I'm using snow. Which is just hard water."

"Water dragon jutsu? That's my friend Bastions, favorite Naruto move. Oddly enough its also his favorite card." said Aurora

Atem took a step or two back then actually did some hand signs. They looked similar to the shows, but they weren't the same. Suddenly he grabbed Kaiba by the arm and squeezed. Just as suddenly he let go and clapped his hands. At the same time he said "Dualist Style: Blue Eyes White Dragon Water Jutsu!" He then shot one hand up in the air, while keeping the other close to his face. Looking uncannily like a character from his favorite of shows. When his hand was to its full height a Blue Eyes made out of snow came up behind him.

"Whoa!" said Joey

"Now what's that dragon made of?" asked Aurora

"Forty percent snow, forty percent shadow magic and twenty percent Kaibas energy." stated Atem

Kaiba went over to it and touched it. It reacted like a pet greeting its master.

Atem looked at the other two and said "Shall I do it again?" The two of them nodded like six year olds. He smiled then: "Dualist Style: Red Eyes Black Dragon Water Jutsu!" A moment later: "Dualist Style: Magna-Slash Dragon Water Jutsu!" The two of them ran over to their dragons.

"How? How did you-" asked Duke

"Energy control on a grand scale! I just say it in a jutsu format for effect."

"Alright, I'll admit it. I would defiantly like to see Yuske do this!" said Aurora climbing on the back of her dragon.

"Can you do Slifer man?" asked Tristan walking over with the others.

"Yeah, do Slifer!" said Tea

"Or maybe The Winged Dragon Of Ra." said Yugi

"Wait, I have something else that I can do. Its not as flashy but I still think that you will like it." he then took Narutos 'Shadow Clone Jutsu' pose. "This is my version of The Shadow Clone Jutsu." He then concentrated and then "Shadow Fr-"

"Hey guys!" Botan was suddenly there with Yuske.

Atem jumped back. "Whoa! Don't do that!"

"Sorry." said Botan while Yuske laughed at his reaction. Aurora and Joey, who had been flying around on their dragons for the past two minutes, suddenly jumped down in front of The Pharaoh with their arms spread out. (While no one was looking, the Kaiba brothers took the opportunity to fly around on their dragon. They really liked to do loopy loops.) Botan was surprised to see Aurora and Joey react that way. Yuske however rolled his eyes.

"Don't you even think about it!" said Joey

"Yeah, he's still mine." said Aurora After realizing what she said she blushed. Yuske snorted.

"Relax, I'm not after him." said Botan now that she knew what they were up to. Aurora started.

"Well you can't have me either!" she said hiding behind Atem, who snorted. She bopped him in the shoulder, which didn't help. He snorted again. (Botan sweat dropped)

Atem then asked Yuske "Did you ever find Kurama?" Yuske was about to answer, but Botan interrupted him.

"He's busy. We have detected a weird energy, that Yuske recognized as shadow magic--"

"Calm down he's just showing off with it. Its not like he's going to do something wrong." said Serenity pointing at Atem.

"Well, we knew that the first bleep on the radar was you because we had the Yugi channel on."

"The Yugi channel?" asked Joey he then spun around and raised an eyebrow at Atem.

While rubbing the back of his head Atem shrugged. "That's what we call it when we are seeing what you guys are up to." he said

"Do I have my own channel?" Aurora asked excitedly

"Of course." he replied

"Dose this mean that the girls need to put led shields around the shower now?" said Kaiba from on top of his Blue Eyes

Atem went red! "Who do I look like Pervy Sage? Whats wrong with you Kaiba. I'm no pervert!" he shouted All the boys sniggered.

"Ah, bro. Aurora always could bring out the best of you." said Mokuba surveying his brother after he had jumped down. Kaiba was smiling, The Pharaoh was glaring.

"What do you mean Mokuba?" Asked Yugi

"What I mean is that when ever she's around its like the kid in him is set free and he says things like that. He doesn't seem to notice that he's like a different person."

"My friend Jayden says that I have some kind of calming effect." said Aurora

Mokuba nodded thoughtfully then said "He brings out the best in you too. Because of his tutoring you could be promoted to the blue dorm soon."

"I've heard the same thing about you too, Moky."

Botan cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. They looked to her to continue. Everyone was silently wondering what she meant by 'the first bleep'. Even the Kaiba brothers. "Not to soon after you started showing off we started to see more shadow magic bleeps on the radar. They were in this general area and they are stronger then what you had been dishing out."

"So then what did you mean when you said that Kurama was busy?" asked Bakura who was scared that he already knew the answer.

"Umm, well he's fighting--" Atem and Ryo said it for her.

"Shadow Creatures…." Ryo looked at him worry in his eyes. The Pharaoh was unreadable. He was also deep in thought. "I hope that I'm not the cause of this." He mumbled louder then he meant to.

"I fail to see how you could have come to that conclusion." said Bakura

"Yeah, you heard Botan. The power levels were different." said Tristan

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I hope he did cause this because at least that way we know where its coming from." said Yuske

"But we all know that I would never summon shadow creatures." said Atem

"He has a point, Yuske." said Botan

"Hey, shadow creatures, shmadow creatures. We can take them!" proclaimed Joey He then pulled out his deck. The two non-dualists raised an eyebrow at him. The rest of the dualist however followed suit, except:

"Kaiba, your with us too, right?" Atem turned and looked up at him. (He was still sitting on his dragon.)

Seto jumped down and said: "Well, we are Family and now friends..…so I suppose. Just make sure that you don't slow me down." He then glanced at Joey.

"Besides I never did get a chance to battle shadow creatures back in the day so lets go!" Mokuba added

"Family!? Since when are these two family?!" asked Yuske

"I have no idea!" said Botan

"Oh, even I know that one!" said Aurora exasperated

"You do?" said the two of them

"Atems Dad and ancient Setos Dad were brothers. So that means that ancient Yugi, Atem, and ancient Seto, also named Seto. I don't know how that worked. Were cousins!" said Aurora

"How the heck did you find out about that?" asked Atem amused.

"I watch the Yami Channel which is part of The Millennium Cable Package." said Aurora (Atem, Yugi and Seto: sweat drop, Yuske and Botan: mock death, Everyone else: laughing hysterically)

"Ok, how did you really find that out?" asked Tea

"Grampa Moto told me once. He was an archeologist so he knows these things." Aurora replied shrugging.

"Well speaking of knowing things I'm going to head back to spirit world to see if they have found out anything new." said Botan hopping on her ore.

"Well hurry back!" said Aurora Botan nodded and flew off. "Nothing I hate more then heading into a case with only half the info. Hence the note for help." she glanced at Atem.

"Case?" asked Serenity

"Yup, this is now an official spirit detective case. As such I think that you guys should head back to the Game Shop."

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen." said Yugi with a knowing smile.

"Yup, Yugi tried that 'I don't want to put my friends in danger' thing too and it didn't work, EVER." said Tea

"Yeah, didn't we all just agree that we were going to stand together?" asked Serenity

"Well I don't know if I really heard it that way……" said Aurora trying to find a loop hole.

"Well, I did!" said Joey, Tristan, Bakura, Duke, Mia, Kaiba and Mokuba all at the same time.

"Hmm, out numbered. I don't think that you are going to win this argument." said Yuske with his trademark grin.

"Welcome to our world." said Atem remembering all the times that Yugi had tried to get the others out of the danger that they all ended up facing together. The Pharaoh then looked at Kaiba. "Hmm, never thought that I would see the day when Seto Kaiba got, what's the term that you use Aurora? Ah, yes warm and fuzzy." Atem grinned broadly. Kaiba, on the other hand, blushed for the first time to any of their knowledge.

Whatever his retort was going to be they didn't get a chance to hear because at that very moment the ground began to shake. Darkness started to suddenly erupt from the ground. It covered the park and a large part of the surrounding city. "What in the--" shouted Yuske as he lost he balance.

"We are being taken into the shadow realm." said Atem

"Not good!" said Aurora

"This place actually exists?!" asked Yuske

"Oh, yeah!" answered the Kaiba brothers

"Get together!" shouted Ryo suddenly. Strangely everyone did as he said. Joey had one arm around Mia and one arm around Serenity. Yugi forced Tea to stand behind him. Aurora wanted to run into Atems or maybe Kaibas arms, but being spirit detective she knew that she couldn't.

"Whoa! Look at our dragons!" shouted Joey The three dragons were still flying over their heads. But now they looked to be in pain. Atem didn't even know that they were still there. They were usually gone by now, they had never lasted this long before. Then he remembered whose dragons they were and wasn't surprised. "Red Eyes!" shouted Joey The Dragons looked down at their three humans. The snow seemed to explode off of them. To reveal dragon spirits. Kaibas and Joeys seemed to convert into energy. Then they flew down to land on their belts. They then turned into swords.

"Well, isn't that interesting." said Aurora She looked up at her dragon. It was in spirit form, then energy, then it went back to her deck. "Hmm, I guess my bad confidence in dueling has come back to haunt me." Aurora observed.

"Didn't see that coming." said Joey and the girls. Suddenly a nasty skeletal shadow creature came up behind him and the girls, with a clawed hand raised, ready to strike!

"Rose whip!" Aurora cut it clean in half! "I grabbed it off the tree out of habit." She said and shrugged at Joeys questioning look.

"Guys, more are on the way! We have to get moving." shouted Ryo

"How do you know?" Seto asked him as they started running.

"Thanks to tomb robber Bakura losing to psycho Marik I ended up spending a lot of time here. I just picked it up, good thing to because I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

"That's when you disappeared from the blimp!" said Mokuba Ryo nodded. He was glad that his disappearance was noticed. They didn't get to far before Ryos prediction of more creatures coming had come true. Many of them came. They roughly reassumed their earlier formation. Kaiba and Joey drew their swords and fought them off like they were pros. Then everyone remembered that they were knights back in the time of Atlantis. (Yugi/Atem: Tamius Kaiba: Credius Joey: Harmoss)

"Shot gun!!" shouted Yuske and Aurora taking down almost half of them. They cleared a path through the enemy. "Get out of here! We'll cover you!" they then shouted. The dualists did as they were told. After, they all hid in a particularly foggy area.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Someone who they did not see was watching them.

"Yes, fight my creatures. Exert yourselves. Tire yourselves right into my trap!" the person thought smiling.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Nice sword work Joey! You should give Kuwabara lessons." said Yuske "Ditto to you Kaiba."

"Wow, I'm feeling more tired then I should be for the amount of spirit energy that I used." said Aurora Yuske wouldn't admit it but it was the same for him and everyone else too.

"Yeah the shadow realm is like that." said Yugi

"Alright why is this happening?!" yelled Mia suddenly sinking to her knees. Ryo put a hand over her mouth.

"I know how you feel Mia, but you have to keep quite." he said She shoved him away. Joey put a hand onto her shoulder as she started to hyper ventilate.

"Do you need a paper bag?" said Yuske sarcastically. Joeys fist was headed right for Yuskes head. Aurora got in the way and surprised everyone when she didn't flinch when his fist barely stopped in time.

"We can't start fighting each other! We can't waste any of our energy here!" said Aurora No one had ever heard her talk like that before. "Although, you do owe Yuske a punch when this is all over."

Joey put his hands into his pockets. "I could have clobbered you! How did you know that I would stop in time?" Aurora shrugged.

"Where did that sudden burst confidence come from?" asked Atem

"I wouldn't call that confidence I think I would call that impulse born from my training and cases--"

"AAA!" Mia suddenly screamed Some kind of red shadow creature came from under the ground and wrapped its long arms around her legs. Yuske grabbed her and pulled her out of its grip, then he gathered spirit energy in his fist and punched the ground. The blow hit the shadow creature in the head killing it instantly. More of the same underground creatures started to make their presence known. Many red hands suddenly burst from the ground and tried to drag them underground. They ran for it. Somehow they got out of the gauntlet of hands.

"This is going to be a lot tougher then I thought if we can't even stop to rest." Tristan said

"How come you couldn't sense those Ryo?" asked Mokuba

"They came to fast. I didn't say that my shadow sense was foolproof." he replied

"It's the best that we got though." said Atem limping up.

"Are you alright?" asked Tea

"Its just that foot injury. The shadow realm seems to be amplifying its severity." he said

"A heck of a lot by the look of it." Aurora observed As she went towards him he banished the pain from his face.

"I'll be fine. I just wasn't expecting it that's all." said Atem firmly.

"You sure?" asked Yuske Atem nodded. Aurora shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"Come on we have to get moving. Somewhere there is a place in the shadows that is weaker then most. That place will be the best place for all us to escape at once." said The Pharaoh sounding business like. They started moving again. Walking for untold hours. Maybe even days for all Aurora knew. She kept this thought to herself. For some reason both Yuske and Atem wanted to guard their backs. Joey took the left side and Kaiba took the right. Aurora was the one who took point. Ryo was in sensing mode. Focusing hard to make sure that his friends were forewarned of any attacks by shadow creatures. He was right about eighty to ninety percent of the time. The only ones he missed were the extremely speedy ones, which seemed to take the most energy to defeat.

To conserve on energy they alternated their fighting teams. One half of the group would fight off an attack at a time. Plus they only summoned monsters in an emergency. Sticking to the lowest level possible. Atems foot speed was declining with every battle he fought.

When asked he would refused help. His friends safety being more important then his own. Aurora was about to hold him down herself and help him weather he liked it or not. It was then that she noticed Yuske. He was way more tired then she was. That wasn't right because he was far more powerful then she was.

"Maybe his demon side has something to do with it? Some strange shadow realm effect?" Aurora thought somehow not fully convinced by her own explanation.

"Hmm….." Everyone looked to see that it had come from Ryo.

"Something wrong, my white haired friend?" asked Aurora Ryo raised an eyebrow at her for that, (she shrugged) but didn't make a comment on it.

Instead he said what he was thinking: "I don't like this. Theses attacks seem way to consistent. I think someone is controlling the creatures that are coming after us."

"Really?" asked Serenity

"If that's true then who is it?" asked Yugi

"Psycho Marik?" suggested Mia with a badly hidden shudder. Joey put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"It also could be Setos dark side. Remember him Yugi?" said Mokuba

"Oh, do I." replied Yugi

"Panik?" suggested Tristan

"Ryo is going to be mad at me for this but my money is on tomb robber Bakura." said Aurora

"Why him?" asked Atem

"Because he was the most persistent and he also showed up when no one ever expected him to. Even after Ryo didn't have the Millennium Ring any more."

"She has such a good point that I can't be mad at her." said Ryo with, like Mia, a badly hidden shudder.

"I don't know. I'm somehow thinking that we are all right in someway." said Duke

"Yeah, sure Devlin. They used polymerization on themselves and fussed together." said Kaiba sarcastically

"Hey, I wouldn't put it past any of those slime balls!" said Joey.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Ah, So they are staring to catch on. I figured they would have long ago. Hmm, I was giving these fools to much credit. One more attack ought to do it. If it doesn't destroy them out right then they will be ready for me….."------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ They were walking again. And again they lost track of how long. They were still walking in the same formation. All of them were very tired, but amazed to see that they hadn't passed out. That's when Aurora started to get suspicious. When she turned around to ask Yuske why they hadn't keeled over into exhaustion yet she saw something that she didn't expect.

The Pharaoh suddenly took a knee grunting. Then he started breathing as if they had been running all this time. "Yami!" shouted Aurora running through everyone. The gang was surprised to see Atem down and nearly out.

"What happened to you?" asked Kaiba trying and failing to keep the concern out of his voice.

"Nothing happened, just tired." said Atem Yuske looked to be in the same state, minus the foot injury.

"You have to forgive me for this Pharaoh, but that is bull! Now give me that foot so I can heal it and tell me what's wrong with the two of you!" She reached down and grabbed Atem, trying to hold him in a position where she could get to his foot.

"Aurora, knock it off! Don't waste your energy on me!" he said trying to fight her off.

"Oh, I will knock you out if I have to!" Aurora retorted Yuske didn't want that to happen.

"Energy transference!" said Yuske suddenly. Aurora stopped fighting with the Pharaoh and looked up at him.

"What?!" she asked

"Yuske, quite!" Atem barked

"No, wait what dose that mean?" asked Serenity

"That's what we have been doing. Transferring our energy to you guys, so that you guys could keep going. That's why we took the back position, so you couldn't see us doing it." said Yuske looking at the ground. No one knew they had so much energy.

Ryo seemed more angry then Aurora. They were angry because what they had been doing was dangerous. The two of them could, if they became to weak, get trapped in the shadow realm forever. Also they could die. No one was going to accept either one of those options. Ryo suddenly went stiff and dove on Yuske. Everyone thought that Ryo was going to try to hurt Yuske until the ground shook, much like it did when they first entered the dark realm. Joey grabbed Atem and pulled him away from where he had been sitting. If he had been any sooner the Pharaoh would have been sent skyward as a huge shadow monster in black armor burst forth from the ground.

"Get together!" Atem yelled barley raising to his feet eather because his injured foot or his lack of energy no one was able to tell. They got together and were about to launch an attack on their new foe when a very large number of the same type of creature came up the same way as the first, they formed a circle around their intended targets.

"Well I'll give them one thing. Theses guys sure know how to make an entrence." said Yuske

"We will take them down just like the rest!" said Atem sounding very much like Joey.

"I don't know what you two are thinking, but you two are in no shape to be fighting anyone. Even Serenity and I could tell and we are the ones that are the most new at this!" said Mokuba suddenly.

"No Mokuba, those two have to fight if they don't the shadow realm will take them and if it doesn't those armored freaks will." said Kaiba His grip tightening on his sword, as was Joeys.

"Never thought I'd say this but, rich boy is right, they do have to fight. Just like the rest of us." said Joey as he glanced nervously at his younger sister and girlfriend, then at the rest of his friends.

"Well said boys, you sure that you don't want to be part of my spirit detective team?" asked Aurora grinning.

"Sorry, I have a company to run." said Kaiba

"No can't, I'm to busey trying to prevent Kaiba Corp. from taking over the world." said Joey grinning at Seto. Kaiba half glared at him for that.

"Oh well just figured that I would ask." said Aurora The rest of the gang grinned.

"So, do we have a strategy for these guys?" asked Yugi

"Hmm, I got one!" said Atem "This time we take the gloves off!" His forehead suddenly shined brightly and he drew a card. "Dark Magicain come forth! I need your help my friend!"

"I like where this is going, come forward Obnoxious Celtic Guard!" shouted Yugi The rest of them followed suit. Yuske was careful to stay out of their way.

Duke: "Judge Man!"

Tea: "Seiyryu!"

Mia: "Wingweaver!"

"Perfect! Creatures of light! We will need those to get out of here!" said Atem

Ryo didn't even look at what he drew. A Man Eater Bug was by his side a split second later. He ordered it to attack and was surprised to see it obey him. It tore into the nearest enemy ferociously.

Mokuba: "Elemental Hero Bladedge!"

"How did you get that?" asked Aurora

"Jayden had two of them. I traded him for this one. The one he doesn't use in his deck."

"Go! Feral Imp!" shouted Serenity

"Go, Super--" Tristans summoning was made invalid as he was attacked directly by the enemy. He hit the ground out cold. Serenity ran to his side.

"Wake up Tristan!" she said Then she looked up. "Feral Imp behind you!" The imp tried to deflect the oncoming enemy with its tail but was to slow. It recived a direct hit and was defeated. The shadows took it and a large portion of Serenitys remaining energy. Causing her to be paralyzed with pain. She wasn't unconscious but she might as well have been. Three enemies started to close in on them.

"Time to do that move I wanted to show you." said Atem Dark Magician watched his back as he took Narutos 'Shadow Clone Jutsu' pose. Although everyone was fighting, they managed to watch him. He took a deep breath and while feeling a bit silly, shouted "Shadow Friendlies Jutsu!!!" There was a pause then duplicates started to appear. But unlike Nartuos move they weren't duplicates of the one who did the move. They were duplicates of his friends!

"Well, I got to say that I didn't see that coming!" said Aurora An enemy approached from the left. Aurora went to shoot it with her spirit gun, but her 'shadow clone' did it for her. Not surprisingly the 'clones' of Tristan, Joey and Duke saved Serenity and the real Tristan from harm.

Mokuba nearly got carried off by a very speedy shadow creature just as he shouted "Reinforcements! Incoming!" He was saved by Setos 'shadow clone'. Likewise Seto was saved by Mokubas 'clone' when his sword was knocked from his hand and he was knocked from his feet. The enemy was going to stab him in the back. 'Clone' Moky tackled him and they rolled out the way.

Atem finely keeled over and hit the ground. One of the underground shadow creatures, that had kept them moving all this time, came and grabbed him around the throat! Amazingly he was still awake and he began to try to escape its grip. Being as weakened as he was his was failing miserably. Luckily he had Dark Magician (a.k.a.: Mahod) by his side. He pulled the Pharaoh out of its grip, he was holding him around the chest. Atems face was nearly purple. He coughed and gasped. Dark Magician, took a few steps away from the hands that were searching for its lost victim.

Suddenly two new hands came out of the ground and grabbed his ankles. One of the armored enemies came at them, its crude sword raised. Holding Atem the way he was he knew that He wouldn't be able to use his staff in time. So he positioned himself in such a way that he would take the hit and Atem would remain unharmed. He braced himself for the attack.

"Dark Burning Attack!" Mahod turned to see his female counterpart defeat the fiend. He looked up and saw Aurora holding up her trademark card grinning. After Dark Magician Girl freed his ankles they knocked staffs. Aurora ran over to them.

"Give him to me. I can take care of him." said Aurora Mahod looked unsure. When Dark Magician Girl nodded at him he gave Atem to her. It was then that she saw Ryo. His latest monster was destroyed and he hadn't yet recovered. He was gripping himself painfully. A speedy creature was coming up behind him. Without thinking Aurora yelled "Dark Magic Attack!" Unexpectedly Mahod jumped up and launched the attack, destroying the monster and saving Ryo. Aurora looked at him amazed that he would listen to her. Her? "Well I wasn't talking to you, but I'm not complaining." she said to him. He merely shrugged. Maybe he did it because she had said 'Dark Magic' and not 'Dark Burning'. She then noticed that while Ryo was the most tired out of everybody (execpt of course for the Pharaoh and Yuske) he was also the least harmed out of everybody, the four of them found that strange.

"Come on, lets help out!" said Aurora taking out her two headed rose and starting forward. Since the rose had two heads the whip could also have two heads. She made this so and took down some enemies that had attached themselves to Teas dragon.

"Tea, get on your dragon and start flying around. You will find a way out of here that way since your dragon is a creature of light." Atem said suddenly. He was leaning on Aurora. Tea nodded. She didn't even know that he was awake. "Wingweaver! Take Mia and follow Tea!" Much to Auroras surprise she did as the Pharaoh had said. In addition to her search for an exit Tea also gave some much needed air support seeing as all of the 'Shadow Clones' had been destroyed by now, by the shadow reinforcments.

Aurora woke Tristan up saving him from the shadows and kept Yuske awake without batting an eyelash. She didn't dare go after Atem again because Mahod was close by. Her sudden burst of confidence didn't go unnoticed by her friends eather.

Dukes monster had just finished getting him out of a very close call when he said "I think that we better retreat. I just don't think we have it in us to keep this up. We are just to tired!"

"I'm going to have to agree with Devlin on this one!" said Kaiba Atem was surprised by that.

"Yeah, lets move it! We are running for it!" shouted both Atem and Aurora. So they ran, they didn't exactly want to, but they did. Predictably the enemy horde pursued them. "Now what do we do?"

"I'll take care of them!" shouted Kaiba He then pulled out his deck, looked through it and pulled out a trap card. Then he stopped and spun around. "Negate Attack!" he then shouted. A spinning vortex appeared and blew at least half of them back into the shadows.

"Nice job Kaiba, but what are we to do with the other half?" asked Ryo as he and everyone else stopped running.

"Got it covered!" shouted Yugi stepping up. He already had his chosen card in his hand. "Go! Mirror Force!" An iridescent barrier appeared before them and took care of the remaining pursuers.

"Now why didn't we do that from the get go?" asked a very tired Yuske

"Because we knew we could handle all those other fights. This one we couldn't so we used, no pun intended, our trump cards." said Yugi

"Nicely put, Hikari!" said Atem Yuske just shook his head because he was unable to come up with a comeback. Aurora grinned at him, for the same reason.

Teas dragon, Seiyaryu, used its mystic flame to purify the ground so that the underground creatures couldn't get them. "I didn't know that my dragon could do that until Dark Magician Girl told me, just now." said Tea before Yuske asked. Then Teas dragon landed. Ryo was for some reason looking at his hands. "Are you alright?" she asked him. He displayed his hands reluctantly. Flames are still flames and as such they can still burn. Ryos hands were burned, badly. Aurora put Atem down and went to go over to him.

"No, those two need it more then I do." Ryo said indicating Serenity and Atem.

"Your right." Aurora went over to them. Atem pointed at Serenity without a word. Aurora half glared at him and said "Fine, but your next." He shrugged, also he couldn't help grinning at her slightly.

Dark Magician Girl smiled when she spoke: "I love to see you so confident."

"Well, I'm always like this when my friends are involved." replied Aurora cautiously as she gave Serenity some energy. She was on her way to Atem when Dark Magician Girl spoke again, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm a friend of yours, so why aren't you confident when your dualing?" Aurora didn't really know what to say, so she put on a face that she hoped looked like she was thinking and continued with what she was doing, which was prying Atems shoe off. He was putting up one heck of a fight. Aurora didn't know weather or not he was messing with her.

"Where's Mia?" Joey said suddenly.

"Hey! Wingweaver found a weak spot!!" Mia suddenly shouted from above. Then her Wingweaver, who was carrying her, got hit by some kind of attack from some far off monster. Wingweaver was taken by the shadows, Mia was dropped.

Joey pointed his sword up into the air and said "Red Eyes save Mia!" The dragon answered Joeys call. It emerged from the sword flew up and caught her on its back. He still had a sword it was just normal now. Atem, Mahod and Dark Magician Girl suddenly looked really scared.

Aurora who still hadn't healed him stopped trying and asked Atem: "What's wrong? Did you recognize that attack or something?" He nodded without a word, as did the other two.

"Kaiba, we need Blue Eyes and fast!" Atem said suddenly. Without a word Kaiba nodded and took the same action Joey just did. The dragon was summoned and Kaiba, closely followed by his brother, climbed onto its back and after, getting the directions from Mia, proceeded to have the dragon attack the weak area of the imprisoning shadows. Suddenly there was a huge gaping hole in the shadows. It revealed the world outside, where it seemed to be snowing.

Suddenly the hole started to shrink! "That's not good! We have to keep that opened!" Tristan shouted

"I've got it! The Swords Of Revealing Light! They hold monsters in place. So whose to say that they won't hold that hole open?" said Aurora

"That is a trump card of yours, go a head! Give it a try!" said Yugi

"You better hurry!" said Duke

"Thanks, no pressure there." Aurora retorted as she found the afor mentioned card. Aurora held the card above her head willing it to activate. When it didn't activate she looked at it to make sure it was the right card. It was, so up it went up again. "Swords Of Revealing Light!" She concentrated her remaining energy as hard as she could. The card started to spark but no more then that. "The card wants to activate. But I don't think that I can do it….."

"You just need a little help, is all." said Yugi putting his pointer and middle fingers on the back of the card.

"A little help like this." said Duke doing the same

"Here's some more help." said Joey, Tristan, Tea, Mia and Serenity mimicking Duke.

"Bingo! And our prize is escaping from this freaky place!!!" Yuske said suddenly.

The Kaiba brothers were leaning off Blues Eyes back and said to him "I think that you have been hanging out with Botan to much, man. I've met her, she gives Aurora her cases at the academy." Mia was doing the same thing from on top of Joeys Red Eyes. They were all putting in some energy.

A column of light shot straight up, through the hole which slowed its closing but didn't stop it. "Captain, We need more power!" said Aurora

"You just couldn't help yourself could you?" asked Atem grinning while putting in his own contribution. Dark Magician Girl did the same also grinning. Dark Magician put in his bit looking slightly confused.

"Ryo, get your butt in here!" said Joey Their white haired friend displayed his burnt hands again without a word.

"Yes, it might be painful. But you have to try! None of us are going to leave you here." said Yuske It was what everyone was thinking. Ryo saw Yuskes eyes grow suddenly. "What the heck is that thing?" Ryo spun around to see something he thought he would never have to see again.

"Not that thing!" shouted the Pharaoh. Without warning the huge and frightening form of Diabound emerged from the shadows.

"And where do you think your going?" said the unmistakable voice of tomb robber Bakura. His voice seemed to be resonating from Diabound. Which was slowly coming closer.

"That thing is so strong that the purified ground won't hurt it at all!" Ryo said sounding very scared.

"Ryo, we still have time, get over here and---" Auroras sentence was cut short by something that she most definitely didn't expect. With 'energy defying' speed Ryo whipped around and kissed Aurora. Transferring a large amount of his energy to her which she focused on activating The Swords Of Revealing Light.

Once activated the swords appeared around them and went skyward. Exactly what Aurora had expected them to. They were holding their exit open!

"What?! Where did you get the energy?!" they heard tomb robber Bakura shout. He had appeared in front of his favorite monster suspended by shadow magic. They ignored him. And climbed onto the waiting dragons. All except two of them.

Ryo took a step back from his surprised friend. He was blushing slightly, but smiling. Aurora didn't know what to say, she just stared at him.

"It doesn't matter where you got the energy from! Only one person here will be leaving!" shouted Bakura Ryo suddenly got a very determined look on his face. Then he grabbed Aurora and threw her to Kaiba, a top his Blue Eyes. He caught her, dropping his sword in the process.

"Take care of her Kaiba!" Ryo gave him a salute and took up his sword. Then he got out of the circle of swords just before a sheer white barrier formed around them. Ryo was now cut off from his friends.

"Ryo! What are doing?!" yelled Yugi as they all watched him turn and run at his former controler with Kaibas sword raised. "He doesn't stand a chance against that thing!"

Suddenly the dragons saw the way out and started heading for it!

"Wait we can't leave yet!" Tea yelled at her dragon.

"Not without Ryo!!" Aurora shouted at Blue Eyes. Their steeds paid them no attention.

"Diabound, attack them!" Bakura ordered

The monster did as commanded. The attack hit the sheer white barrier and was dispersed. "We got through that one but I don't think that the shield can handle to many of those attacks!" said Duke nervously

"Ye a little faith!" yelled Tristan smacking Duke upside the head.

"I'm kind of thinking that he's right." said Yuske pointing at the place where the attack had hit, there was a huge crack.

"You'll pay for that!" shouted Ryo going for the snake part of the monster. He missed, then it reared back and tried to bite him. He barely managed to dodge. Then he stabbed it.

"Well, well….Don't we have spirit? (Ryo looked at who was talking to him) Long time no see Ryo." said Bakura

Meanwhile the dragon riders were nearly out. The strange part was they wouldn't listen to their riders when told to stop. The bottom line was they wanted out. If Ryo got left behind 'oh well'.

Yuske suddenly had a curious look on his face. "Yuske?" asked Joey who was sitting in front of him.

"Aurora? Do you sense that?" said Yuske She nodded.

"Look! Over there!" she yelled pointing.

Before everyone had a chance to look at what she was pointing at they all heard a new voice shout "Rose Whip!"

"Kurama?!" said Ryo

"I've got your back 'cousin'!" Kurama replied lashing at Bakura and just barely missing as he dodged. And that was the last thing that the dragon riders saw before they were back in the outside world.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can't believe that Ryo is the 'cousin' that Kurama was looking for." said Joey.

"I saw that one coming actually, I mean they do look a lot a like." said Atem thoughtfully from his position next to Yugi. He then raised an expectant eyebrow at Aurora who was shifting uneasily.

"Are you alright?" asked Kaiba who was still holding on to her from when Ryo threw her to him.

"Hopefully you will forgive me for this Seto!" she said as she drew a card from her deck. Once the card was free of her deck case she elbowed him in the stomach, hard. He let her go. Once released she summoned her dragon. "Magna-Slash Dragon! Come forth, I need your aid!" She shouted It came and she leaped onto its back. "Pharaoh, I may need your help as well."

"Then you got it!" he said following her lead. "Come on!" he then said to the two Dark Magicians. They were ready for battle.

They were about to leave when: "Oh, that's not all the help your going to get Detective!" said Joey "Help them out Flame Swordsman and Swamp Battle Guard!"

Tristan then shouted: "Lava Battle Guard and Cyber Commander!"

Duke: "Strike Ninja and Orgoth The Relentless!"

Serenity: "Baby Dragon!"

Yugi: "Celtic Guardian!"

Tea: "Shinning Friendship and Magician Of Faith!"

Kaiba: "Paladin Of White Dragon!"

Mokuba: "Rude Kaiser!"

Mia: "Harpy Lady Sisters!"

Yuske simply said "I'm starting to wish that I was a dualist!" A few of them snorted. "Don't do anything crazy in there Pharaoh!" Yuske ordered. He was worried about him do to the fact that he was critically low on energy.

Before he could say anything Aurora spoke: "Relax, he just the strategist." As he was sitting behind her on her dragon she didn't see the annoyed raised eyebrow.

"Alright, monster army of friendship move out!" Aurora shouted They then dove down, back into the shadows. "Don't tell her I said this but I think that you have been spending to much time with Tea." said Atem once they were out of earshot of the gang. Aurora tried to hide it but she snorted, loud too.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bakura had Ryo in some kind of shadow spell that prevented him from moving. He looked to be standing at attention. He had lost his sword soon after his first attack. The pain of the burns on his hands caused the drop. He then had to jump away from it to dodge one of Diabounds attacks. It was then that Bakura had nabbed him. Kurama couldn't get to him in time because he had his hands full fighting off the shadow creatures Bakura sent after him. Ryo wasn't going to give up, but he was glad that his friends weren't there to see him snared.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ok, here's the attack plan, Pharaoh your in charge of our Mage friends. (Atem nodded) Mage friends your in charge of the rest of the our army of friendship. You guys do what you have to, to help Kurama and Ryo. I'll run interference by going after Bakura and his Diabound. Alright, any objections?" said Aurora as they flew back into battle.

Atem grinned and then jumped from Auroras dragon to the back of baby dragon. "Nope! No complaints here." he said

"And remember no using energy unless it's the only weapon at your disposal." This was directed at Atem. He simply nodded. They arrived in time to see Kuramas rose whip get knocked out of his hand.

"Attack!" yelled Atem The army of friendship then laid siege to the army of the shadows. Atem stayed out of it weakened as he was. Although he paid close attention to what Kurama was doing.

Aurora thought she had it made Bakura was talking to Ryo and seemed oblivious to anything else. She urged Magna-Slash Dragon to go faster. She was planning to swoop up Ryo and land on top of Bakura. That way he would be crushed under her steeds weight.

Suddenly the tomb robber looked up at her, as if he had seen her coming and shouted "Penical Shock Wave!"

"Pull up!" Aurora commanded her dragon. It did pull up, but not fast enough. Although it wasn't defeated the dragon did receive a large amount of damage. The dragon landed of its stomach, throwing Aurora from its back. When she hit the ground she couldn't breath. "How did you see me coming?" she chocked out.

"It seems that I have better connection with my monsters then you do. Diabound saw you coming." He then pointed to his own head indicating that it was telepathy. The glare she gave him could have melted steel.

"Man Eating Tree!" said Kurama the red tree appeared. For the first time ever the tree became full. As such it became useless. The red heads rear defense was gone.

"Baby Dragon, Flame Attack!" shouted Atem A Monster that was about to stab him in the back was defeated. It was then that Kurama noticed that the Pharaoh was there.

"I owe you one!" he said Then he saw something behind Atem. He threw one of his plants at it. "Death Plant!" The plant took root and burst from the flying monster.

"Debt repaid!" said Atem smartly. He then took a long look at Kuramas death plant, and had a sudden inspiration. Although he was hesitant about voicing it because of how risky it was. Suddenly he was drawn out of his thoughts as the tomb robber started to speak.

"I suppose you are all wandering how I can still be around?"

"Its crossed my mind." Ryo growled Looking in a way evil for the first time ever.

"I'm sure it crossed your mind as well Pharaoh." he looked directly at Atem as he said it. Who gave him a death glare that Hiei would have been proud of. "Well, after my most devastating of loses I thought I was finished. I was sent here. All I was though was a semi-self aware wisp of shadow magic. Slowly I started to remember things, my life in Egypt, Battle City. As I remembered things I grew stronger. I met others that were in the same situation. The people that your friends were suspicious of in fact. I stole their power when their strength rose to a level of my liking. After searching for a long time I found Diabound and bonded with it."

"Perfect destroy one, destroy the other." thought Atem "Its going to be easier said then done."

"Now although your friends (he said the word with great disgust) escaped me, that's only temporary. I will destroy you all and take your place in the outside world." he pointed at Ryo.

"That's why he is the most unharmed among us!" said Aurora raising to her feet. As she glared she pointed her spirit gun at him. He responded by grabbing Ryo by the throat.

"Try it and I might just take your body instead." he said calmly while cutting off his lights oxygen supply.

"Your not only evil, you're a pervert!" yelled Aurora Then with amazing speed she switched from spirit gun to rose whip. To completely avoid the attack by the two headed whip he had to let go of Ryo and jump impossibly high into the air. Once again he used shadow magic to keep himself suspended.

"Now is the time! Army of Friendship attack Diabound now!" shouted Atem suddenly while telling Baby Dragon to gain a bit of altitude.

"Gladly!" they all heard Dark Magician say.

"Army of What?" said both white haired dualists, the good was grinning, the evil one not so much. After commanding her dragon to join in the attack she looked over at where Atem and Kurama were.

"What the? Is that Inos 'Mind Transfer Jutsu'?" Aurora said to herself.

"Well of course he would be able to do that." said Ryo He then gasped. "Watch out!" Bakura launched an attack, a powerfull stream of shadow magic, at her.

"Rose Whip!" she cut the attack in half. Then she jumped into the air. "Try dodging this! Shot Gun!" The energy attack was launched so fast he wasn't able to dodge. Said attack wasn't as strong as it could be, but it served as a great distraction.

Atem did his version of Inos 'Mind Transfer Jutsu' on Kurama. The red head went stiff as the move hit him. Kurama then saw, in his mind, images of a young Atem in a garden in Egypt accidentally summoning some kind of plant that he couldn't control. The plant was called the Dark World Thorns. A most dangerous plant of the shadows. It consticts its victims with large very thick vines with huge thorns. It then absorbs all of its victims energy until he has nothing left. It had Atem in its clutches until Mahod came and freed him. Then he reversed the summoning.

Suddenly Kurama heard Atems voice "I'll control the shadow half of the plant, if you can control the plant half. Team work my friend, team work." Kurama agreed and together they started to concentrate.

"Quick Flame Swordsman, use Flaming Sword Of Battle!" shouted Aurora Joeys favorite swordsman wasn't fast enough and was defeated. As were Yugis Celtic Guardian, Dukes Strike Ninja and Tea Shining Friendship. It seemed that the Dark Mages were next on the list. Aurora got in front of them (much to the surprise of the male one) and fired a spirit gun that hit Diabound directly in the face, blinding it. "Dark Mages sick that thing!"

"We are on it!" shouted Dark Magician Girl as she and her male counterpart charged back into the fry. Aurora went to one knee, she wasn't sure if she had anything left. Bakura saw her.

"Aurora, move! Get out of here and take the others with you!" shouted Ryo

"Not without you!" Aurora replied hotly.

"You two will be together in darkness!" shouted Bakura as he came down at her. He was planning on destroying her with a close range, point blank range really, shadow assault. "You will pay for blinding my precious Diabound!!" Aurora knew she wasn't going to be fast enough to counter attack so she refused to look at him. "Look at me! I like to see the expression of those I defeat!" In that split second Aurora saw two things. (A spirit detective must have a keen eye.) Atem was slumped on Baby Dragons back and Kurarma was bent down like the Pharaoh had been right before he attacked Joey with the the hundred snowballs.

"Dark World Thorns, come forth!" The red head had a layered voice. One voice was his own, the other voice was Atems. Without warning a huge ominous looking indigo thorned vine shot out of no where, wrapped around Bakuras waist and threw him over to his beloved Diabound. Suddenly hundreds more of the same vines appeared and went for Diabound. Since it couldn't see it couldn't dodge. It was entwined within seconds. It couldn't break free no matter how it tried.

"Tell your monster army to retreat!" said Ryo

"Don't worry, its all under control." said Kurama his voice was still layered. "In fact they should keep up the attacks. It will make our job a lot easier." He slowly walked over and stood next to her.

Aurora did the only thing that she could think of, grabbed Kuramas auxiliary seeds that were in a pouch on the back of his belt. She made them go active and was about to throw them among the thorns when Bakura somehow suddenly broke free and ran at her. Face full of hot, blazing fury, fist full of deadly shadow magic. Shocked at the impossible escape, Aurora faltered, but was saved when out of no where Ryo was in front of her, his own fist full of what looked like light. He hit Bakura in the stomach then he spun and with the same hand grabbed the pouch of now growing demon world plants and shoved that into his chest. He was knocked backwards by the force of the hit.

Once his dark half hit the ground he was engulfed by Kuramas demonic plants. There were so many tangled together that there was no way that he could escape. The same could have been said for his favorite monster. It was now so engulfed in the Dark World Thorns that they couldn't tell where the monster ended and the plant began.

"How did you get free of Bakuras shadow spell?" Aurora asked Ryo when he turned to face her.

"Well, I couldn't let him just kill my date for Saturday Night, could I?" he replied making her go red.

"Clever pitch 'cousin'! And nice rasengan of light too." said Kurama grinning. They looked at him and blinked. For his voice was now his own. Realizing this the red head blinked.

"This is bad!" came Dark Magician Girls voice suddenly.

"What?" asked Aurora

"The shadow realm is collapsing in on itself! We must escape now!" said Dark Magician

"Magna-Slash Dragon!" The dragon responded to Auroras call and landed right in front of her. "Get on guys! Harpie Lady Sisters assist Baby Dragon!" Atem was still out of it, not a good sign. They all got onto Auroras dragons back. It then took flight, headed for the exit they had created, which was now loosening its fight to stay open. This was not unnoticed by the friends that were still waiting in the outside world.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"They are taking to long!" said Yugi

"Right you are Yugi, lets go after them Joey!" shouted Yuske

"I thought you would never ask!" said Joey Having Red Eyes go into a dive.

"Wait Joey! You need a plan, they had a plan!" said Serenity

Joey stopped on the edge of the shadows at her words. "Not that I lack faith in them or anything, but how can we be so sure?" he asked

"He has a point." nodded Yuske

"That's how look!!" shouted the Kaiba brothers. They all looked down and saw the unmistakable forms of their friends flying towards them.

Then Tea noticed something. "Guys, its closing! Their only way out is closing!"

"What are we going to do?" asked Mia

"I know! We will suck them out!" said Joey suddenly.

There was a collective "Huh?!" from the gang. Joey then took out his Dust Tornado Trap Card. A moment later it was active.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the? Why is it so windy all of a sudden?" asked Kurama

"I don't know, but I think that this is our ticket out of here!" shouted Aurora as the wind suddenly increased.

The wind started to carry them up wards. Faster and faster they went up. At one point they nearly lost Atem. He slipped off Baby Dragons back. He was then caught by one of Mias Harpies.

Suddenly they breached the shadows and made it to the outside world. And not a moment to soon because the shadows finely gave way and folded in on themselves. They then disappeared completely. The dualists went back to their clearing in the park.

"I can't believe that you two are 'cousins'!" Joey was saying as they landed. Soon after the dragons and the others returned to their decks for a nice long rest.

"The family resemblance is kind of obvious Joey." said Ryo grinning at him as was Kurama. Then they all sat down on the benches laughing at Joeys expression. Everyone except: Aurora had Atem. She laid him down on a vacant bench.

"Kurama, come here. Can you help him?" she asked looking up at him. For she was kneeling in the snow next to the bench. Kurama looked at the Pharaoh. He looked worried.

"His breathing is very shallow." He put his hand onto Atems forehead as if checking to see if he had a fever. He then pulled it away as if he was just burned. "Something's not right." he said. Suddenly Kurama gasped, then said "He stopped breathing!"

"Tea, call the hospital!" said Yugi spinning around to see that she already had her cell phone out.

"What do we do in the mean time?" asked Kaiba who wasn't even trying to hide his worry.

"I'm going to keep him alive that's what!" said Aurora getting up, throwing off her coat and pushing up her sleeves. No one knew what she meant, until she began performing CPR on him. They didn't even know that she could do CPR. She had gone through two rounds when Kurama decided to check his pulse.

"Its wavering….." he said quietly looking like he was going to be sick. Aurora heard him. After giving him another breath she said over her shoulder: "I need back up!" Again, no one knew what she meant. Yuske however did. When it was time for compressions Yuske came over and sent a bolt of energy into his chest. Atem responded as if he were shocked by a defibrillator. This went on for three rounds. Aurora would breath, Yuske would 'shock', then Aurora would compress. However the compressions got weaker as Aurora was over come by tears. Seeing this Tristan came over and did one hard compression. It was with his fist. A fist glowing with a very strong energy that was a very unique shade of yellow.

The punch did what it was intended. Atem gasped and started breathing stably, the same went for his heart beat. Made obvious when Kurama nodded when everyone looked at him. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Auroras legs went limp, Tristan caught her as she fell. He held her 'marriage' style. He turned around as they all heard the ambulance arrive.

"Don't get jealous." Aurora said to Serenity, who grinned.

A few minutes later Atem was loaded into the ambulance. Aurora got to join him after Tristan explained that she had kept him alive until they arrived. Not wanting to hog the spotlight she made Tristan and Yuske come to. She would have done the same to Kurama, but they ran out of room.

"Come on guys, we can take my car. That's how I got to the park in the first place--Ryo, you hands!" said Seto They had been so worried about Atem, for good reason, they had forgotten about Ryos burnt hands.

He put those hands behind his back. "Don't worry about me!" he said quickly.

"Come on your riding shot gun so we can get those hands looked at and fast when we get to the hospital." Seto replied as he grabbed Ryo by the back of his jacket and started to drag him towards the car.

"Kaiba, put me down. Stop worrying about me! Its Atem we have to worry about!" as Ryo said this he was trying to wiggle free of his grip.

Kaiba stopped, he put Ryo in front of him then said "If you don't stop struggling I will put you in the trunk for the ride to the hospital." Ryo raised a unconvinced eyebrow at Kaiba, then looked at Mokuba.

"He'll do it too. He's done it to Joey once or twice." said the younger Kaiba brother. When Ryo saw Joeys blush he knew that he wasn't kidding.

"Alright, I'll come quietly." he said Then he displayed his hands as if Kaiba was going to slap the cuffs on him. Everyone laughed, even Kaiba. They then piled into the car and drove to the hospital.

When they arrived Ryo was sent to the burn unit. Seeing as they weren't allowed to see Atem yet they waited for him. He met up with the gang about a half hour later in the waiting room on Atems floor. Tristan, Yuske and Aurora had already been there. Ryos hands were medicated and bandaged. He also had a prescription for pain killers.

During the second half hour of their wait Aurora, Kurama and Ryo filled the others in on what happened in the shadow realm after Aurora and Atem went back in. They finished just in time as the doctor walked in. They all looked up at him.

"Are all of you all friends of Atem Moto?" asked the doctor

Yugi, who was sitting next to Aurora, shot her a look then said "Yes."

"Well, he's his brother." said Aurora pointing at Yugi. (who shot her another look)

"I can see the resemblance." replied the doctor looking at Yugi. "Alright, your brother is stable, but he is still unconscious. You may see him now. But only for about ten minutes." He then turned to leave.

"Wait, she has to come in with me." said Yugi pointing at Aurora.

"Why?" asked the doctor looking over his shoulder.

"Because she is his faience." replied Yugi (this time he received a look)

"Oh, Alright then." said the doctor He then walked away. Once the doctor was out of earshot Joey started to hum 'Here Comes The Bride'. Much sniggering followed. (Aurora sweat dropped)

Once the laughter had subsided: "Now how to get the rest of us in there." Aurora thought out loud.

"You can't because we are not allowed in." said Duke

"Oh, you are all getting in there mark my words."

Yugi and Aurora went to Atems room. Which wasn't to far from their waiting room. "Now ten minutes only." said the doctor

"Right doc." said Yugi

"We hear you loud and clear." said Aurora giving him a salute. He then opened the door for them and walked away. They stood right next to the door. Then checked the hall to see if anyone was looking in their direction. "Ok, you go and get the gang. While I release our little distraction." Aurora told Yugi who nodded. Right after Yugi left the room, Aurora released their little distraction, Kuriboh. As predicted they chased it. Most likely thinking that it was a cat or something. A moment later the gang came running in. Once they were in she recalled the little fur ball, closed the door and drew the doors blinds.

"Don't doubt the detective." said Aurora bowing dramatically.

"All hail Aurora." said Mia raising an eyebrow.

Serenity then went over to Atem. She touched his shoulder. "Hey Pharaoh, can you hear me?" She asked She didn't get any response.

"Kurama, you said that something wasn't right back at the park after touching his forehead. What did you mean?" asked Tea

"Well, he was having some problems. His lack of energy for one thing. But Tristan it seems took care of that." Tristan shrugged.

"That energy I've seen once before, well actually twice. Yuske used it in his battle with Yomi. We told her about it. Aurora calls it essence of friendship. Yuske said that it was a good name because he was fighting for his friends." Aurora shrugged.

Then she asked "When was the second time?"

"When I arrived at the Game Shop I had just missed you. I saw the yellow wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree and sensed that it was the same energy."

"That makes sense. We are friends of Atems and those gifts were made for us. Or 'forged' was the word he used." said Yugi

"The energy that Tristan used was the same too?" asked Joey Kurama nodded. Joey gave him a confused look.

"The energy is the same because the feeling it comes from is the same. Even if its wielder is not." Yuske said suddenly. He was deep in thought and looking at the floor. None of them had ever heard him talk like that before. They all just looked at him for a few seconds.

"Now as to my comment after touching the Pharaohs forehead." said Kurama after a final glance at Yuske. "There is something wrong with his mind. It was brought on when he performed his version of Inos 'Mind Transfer Jutsu'. I think you guys watch Naruto a little too much. But anyway, he entered my mind and together we helped to take down Diabound by means of the Dark World Thorns plant. When we separated it was not because he released the umm, 'Jutsu' but because he had finely reached his limit. His endurance had run out, because of that there was a kind of, for lack of a better word, malfunction with the move. It seems that a large and powerful amount of my energy, which is demon not human, had a feed back affect on him. It went into his mind severely injuring it. Which is what is keeping him unconscious. The only way that he is going to wake up at all is if we somehow heal his mind." Everyone, aware of it or not, then turned to look at Aurora. She didn't notice it at first and when she did she pretended not to.

When she could stand it no longer she asked, as calmly as she could: "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Because you are the only one here that can transmit energy to others and make it heal them." Mokuba said quietly

"You have a valid point there Moky, but to heal his mind we would have to enter it first. I'm not that strong when I'm at top form. So there is no way I could do it now. Not to mention the amount of energy I would have to use if I could enter his mind. That's energy that I also don't have---"

"Alright now just shut it!" said Seto suddenly. He had never spoken to her like that before. "I don't get why you have such a confidence problem! It goes up, then it goes down. Its like a stupid seesaw! You will barrel into the shadow realm without a moments hesatation, but you won't even try to heal a good friend of yours---I mean ours because of an energy problem! The same one we over came before as a matter of fact! Activating the Swords Of Revealing Light, remember?" They all just stared at him for a moment. They didn't expect that to come from Seto Kaiba. Tea? Now she's the obvious suspect. There was a very long pause.

"Your right Seto. I just have to hold on to that same confidence that I had before and not let it get away." Aurora replied talking directly to him. (to everyones great surprise) Then she addressed the room. "I think that the only energy that is powerful enough for this job is, well at the risk of sounding corny, the essence of friendship. But I don't think that you can call it up on command. I think that it just happens."

"But, wait! Tristan called it up on command didn't he?" said Serenity

"Sort of." said Tristan quietly. Weather any of them heard him or not, he couldn't tell.

"Well, we will just have to do that ourselves, now won't we?" said Yuske sounding like himself again.

"Only we are going to need a lot more then the amount that Tristan used." said Kurama

"There is a bakers dozen of people in here, aside from the Pharaoh. So I think that we could generate at least some sort of spark." said Duke

"I'm still not sure--" started Aurora She then heard something coming from the next room, a song that she had heard recently. For some reason it made everyone in the room freeze "As long as there's Christmas I truly believe that hope is the greatest of the gifts we'll receive. As long as there's Christmas we'll all be just fine. A star shines above us lighting your way and mine."

"Disneys Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas?" asked Yuske to the room at large. Kurama gave him a look.

"We watched that the day the Kaiba brothers showed up." said Aurora without thinking about it. She walked over to Atems bed opposite Serenity and placed her hand on his forehead. "Dukes right. We can do this….." Her voice wavered. Her hand then twitched like she was going to remove it. The end chorus of the song came on. She listened to it as if she was in a trance.

"As long as there's Christmas I truly believe that hope is the greatest of the gifts we'll receive. As long as there's Christmas we'll all be just fine. A star shines above us lighting your way and mine. There will always be Christmas, so there will always will be a time when the world will be full of peace and love." The song then ended. Aurora blinked. Her hand twitched again.

Before she could remove it another hand went over hers. "We can do it." When she looked up she was surprised to see that it was Kaiba who had spoken. The second she was looking him full in the face he winked and said "Hopefully." She blinked at him, then grinned.

Without a word Mokuba came over and put his hand on top of his brothers. Then it was Ryo, then the rest of the dualists. Yuske and Kurama chose then to try to sneak out of the room.

"And where do you think your going?" asked Tea They stopped and looked at her. Yuske rubbed the back of his head. Kurama blinked. She then did the 'come here' gesture. They both blinked.

"It was my energy that got him into this mess." said Kurama

"Doesn't matter, your friends with him aren't you?" she replied.

"Sort of." said Yuske while Kurama shrugged.

"Your friends with me right?" asked Aurora The two of them nodded at that. "Well then, get you butts over here!"

"As you wish, detective." said Kurama

"Right away!" said Yuske They then walked over and put there hands onto the top of the pile.

"Well, I think that the way we should do this is focus our energy hard on him. His personality, why he is our friend, good times we shared. Things of that nature. Nothing threatening. (she couldn't stop herself from glancing at Kaiba) Then on my signal we focus on healing him. If we do this right and if we are strong enough we should be able to enter his mind. " said Aurora

"How will we know when that happens?" asked Yuske

"Trust me, we will know." said Yugi with a knowing smile.

"Alright, everybody on three we will close our eyes and concentrate as hard as we can." said Aurora

Everyone grinned and said "Three!!" at the same time.

At first nothing seemed to happen. Then all of a sudden they felt like they were falling. They weren't falling long as they landed hard on something that felt like sand. They opened their eyes to see something that scared the daylights out of them. Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, Magician Of Black Chaos and Sorcerer Of Dark Magic were all pointing their staffs at them.

"We come in peace!" shouted Aurora They put their staffs down looking extremely confused.

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Dark Magician

"Us? What are you guys doing here?" Aurora countered "Wait, were is here?" (all Mages sweat drop)

"We are inside the Pharaohs mind." said Dark Magician

"Oh…..sweet mother of crap, we made it!" said Yuske Everyone stared at him, not knowing what to say. He shrugged at them.

"What are you doing here?" Dark Magician Girl asked again.

"Most likely for the same reason that you are here. To heal Atems mind." said Aurora Mahod shot her a stern look. "I mean the Pharaoh. How did you get here?"

"Magic." he replied simply. It was then that they looked around. Atems mind looked like Egypt, no one was surprised by this. What they were surprised by was the dark, nearly black sky, the crumbling buildings and the huge cracks in the ground where the sand was running, more like flooding out. "The first thing we have to do is find him. We can't split up though because getting lost is not an option."

Aurora looked around and saw what looked like a palace. "Lets start our search in there, that way we can search in groups. Each one can be guided by one of you guys." She pointed to the Mages as she spoke. They all agreed to the plan and decided that it was the best place to begin the search. The Dark Magician team: Yugi, Joey, Tristan and Tea. The Dark Magician Girl team: Aurora, Ryo and Kurama. The Magician Of Black Chaos team: Yuske, Serenity and Mia. The Sorcerer Of Dark Magic team: Duke and the Kaiba brothers. They split up and searched the whole palace. Aurora found it strange when they didn't find him.

Team Dark Magician Girl was going past a window that viewed a courtyard when she spotted Yugi waving his arms, trying to get their attention. "No real surprise that Yugi found him." said Ryo as they ran out to join them. They got the other teams attention in the same way when they eventually showed up in the over looking hallways. Also no one else was surprised that Yugi was the one who found him. He was under a large tree, out cold in Egyptian garb.

"So that's what he looks like in his pharaoh outfit." said Aurora thinking out loud. There was a collective raised eyebrow from the gang. Aurora giggled and shrugged.

"How are we going to wake him up?" asked Tea

"I don't know, but however we do it we have to be gentle about it. Given the state of things." said Dark Magician

"I have an idea! Scent!" said Kurama

"Leave it to a fox to think of something like that." said Yuske

"A scent. You can't get any more gentle then that." said Aurora

"And I have the perfect thing." said Kurama reaching into his hair.

"I'm right behind you." replied Aurora going to a case on her belt.

"Rose Whip!" they both shouted. The courtyard was filled with rose petals. Not only that but the smell of roses too. The effect was beautiful, everyone thought so, though not all would admit it. As the petals landed on Atem he started to stir. Their light touch was making him itch slightly. As he awoke more he started to notice the smell. He started to sniff the air.

Frightened that seeing all his friends at once might put Atem in to kind of shock. She told everyone, but Kurama to get out of sight. Which they did. After a few more moments of sniffing he spoke. "Those are roses that I smell. Why would I be smelling roses?" There was a pause in which he kept right on sniffing, then "It's either Kurama or my favorite spirit detective." There was another shorter pause, then "Well after what I just said I'm hoping for the first one." Aurora looked really close and saw that he was blushing. She was away from his face when he opened his eyes. He saw them squatting in front of him grinning.

"Oh no its both of them what ever shall I do?" he said sarcastically.

"Hmm, I don't know beg for mercy?" asked the red head grinning.

"That sounds good." Aurora chimed in. The three of them laughed. It was then that they called for the rest of the gang to come out.

"Wow, I think that the only one that is missing is Botan!" said Atem smiling.

Yuske shrugged and said "She was already booked." Everyone laughed.

"Well, now that we found him what do we do?" Joey asked Kurama.

"We heal him, now that we know we can." said Kurama Everyone stared at him. "I can't believe that I was dumb enough to say that out loud." Kurama looked a little uneasy.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Mahod

"If we weren't able to wake him up just now we wouldn't be able to heal his mind at all." Kurama replied glancing at his staff because his hand had tensed.

"Just out of curiosity what would have happened to us." asked Kaiba

"I'm definitely not dumb enough to tell you that." replied the red head.

Kaiba then turned to Aurora: "Best case scenario: we wouldn't have been able to enter. Worst case--"

Atem interrupted her: "Worst case scenario: you get trapped inside my mind. Which is still a strong possibility. So I suggest you leave now!" He pointed up at one of the overlooking hallways. They looked up at it. When Atem first started to look at it, it had started creaking ominously, but it collapsed just in time for the others to see it. "AAA!" Atem clutched his head and slumped to one side as pain shot like electricity through his mind. The gang wasn't feeling so good either. Although they didn't hurt nearly as much as the Pharaoh, they all had a moment of complete and painful paralyses that lasted just as long as his. It was just more proof of how close friends they were.

"That explains why we found you out like a light." said Tristan once the paralyses had worn off. He made Atem lean on the tree again. Suddenly there was another collapse. This one had a stronger effect on the gang.

"You guys aren't going to leave until you do what you came here to do, no matter what the risks are, are you?" Atem asked with a knowing smile.

"Hey now, your catching on." said Mia grinning and raising an eyebrow.

"We have to work fast. If we don't, well we are pretty much screwed." Aurora said

"So, how are we going to go about this?" asked Kaiba They were then frozen painfully by another collapse.

"We form a very close circle around him, come on." said Aurora They did so. "Umm, hands up, palms forward, facing Atem."

He leaned over (she was next to him) and whispered "You've never done this before have you?"

"No, Jayden and I slept through that class at the academy." she whispered back. Atem grinned at her. Then he put his hands on top of the others and made them face down. Aurora put her hands on top of his. Mia jokingly rolled her eyes. "Alright, we'll just do it like we did before. Concentrate……"

"On three." said Atem

Everyone grinned: "Three!"

They all started to concentrate. At first nothing seemed to happen, plus there were more collapses. They were getting worse.

"Come on, concentrate guys. This has to work and if it doesn't this was my favorite case ever and I'm glad it was my last!!"

"My replacement is not going out this easily!" shouted Yuske

"I hear that!" said Kurama

Everyone nodded grinning, resolve hardening. Then all of a sudden the rumbling stopped. Things that were in the process of falling froze in midair. There was a sudden weight that lifted off of everyone. "That's a good sign…." everyone thought

Then out of no where, there was a flash of yellow light and the gang was back in the hospital room. "What the--" said Joey who got cut off by Tristan: "We are back!"

"So we are." said Ryo "But did it work?"

"I certainly hope so." The gang looked to discover that the Mages were still there. Everyone then took a step back from the bed. The Pharaoh it seemed hadn't moved.

Then suddenly: "Man, do I need some aspirin, my head hurts!" Atem sat up as he rubbed his forehead. Then he looked up and saw the gang. "Hey guys, long time no see." No one could suppress a grin.

"Glad to see that worked." Aurora was trying to sound professional. Atem raised an eyebrow at her. She hugged him. At seeing that the Pharaoh had recovered the Mages took their leave.

"Now that's the Aurora I know!" said Atem "Do you have to act like that when your on duty? That has got to drive you crazy!"

"It drives my friends crazy too." she replied Suddenly the door opened and the doctor walked in. He didn't seem to like the fact that the room was full.

"How long has this room been full?" he asked

"About a minute. Atem has been awake for two." said Aurora without missing a beat.

"Oh, I thought that I was going to have to get mad for a second there." said the doctor.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Joey, who was closest, opened it. In walked two cops in full uniform. "Is there a problem officers?" asked the doctor

"No, we were just trying to solve this missing persons report. Its kind of long. It has fourteen people on it." replied one of the cops.

"A missing persons report?" asked Duke snatching it right out of the second cops hand. He then read some of it. "Guys! Grampa Moto sent out a missing persons report on all of us!"

"What?!" said the room at large

"Now why would he do something like that?" asked Yugi taking a look at it as well.

"He would do that because you have been gone for days. Today is Christmas Eve!"

"No way!" said Serenity before she could stop herself.

"I'm afraid so ma'm." said the first cop showing her the date on his cell phone. It was indeed Christmas Eve.

"Serenity got 'ma'med'." said Yuske who was sniggering. She shook her head at him.

"So……Can we go now?" asked Atem suddenly. He actually sounded kind of perky.

"You were in rough shape we you got here, so I don't think your going to go anywhere." replied the doctor

"Rough shape? Other then feeling a bit on the tired side I feel just fine." said Atem trying his hardest to innocently look at the doctor and not grin at the gang.

"I think we did a better job then I thought." Kurama whispered to Aurora, who nodded. "You're a good leader."

"What ever you say, foxy." she replied winking.

They then started to pay attention to the doctor and the Pharaoh. They had started arguing. "Ok, you two, zip it!" said Mokuba suddenly. "Here's the plan: Doc you send Atem through every test that you can think of and if he passes them all he gets to leave with us. But if he misses just one then he has to stay and like it!" He winked at Atem at the last part. The doctor surprisingly agreed to Mokubas terms. The gang thought that he looked quietly confident.

"He's getting to be a good negotiator Kaiba. Better watch out. He might start gunning for your job soon." said Ryo

"And the plot of Kaiba Corp. thickens." replied Seto to much grinning. They all went back to their waiting room, where from Yugi called the Game Shop. He filled Grampa Moto in on what happened.

What they also had not realized was that it was still morning. Which turned out to be a good thing because the doctor kept Atem pretty much all day. It was around 6:30 when he finely got the Ok to sign out of the hospital.

"After a while I think he was trying to get me." said Atem as they were leaving.

"I have a few teachers like that." said Aurora Mokuba nodded.

"I'll have to have a talk with those teachers when I bring you two back to the academy." said Kaiba thoughtfully.

"How did you all get into my room?" asked Atem

"In the words of the butler from the Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds: "Sneaky, sneaky sir." " replied Aurora The others grinned.

"Kuriboh, right?" said Atem raising a suspicious eyebrow. The gang snorted.

"How do you do that? I hate it when you do that." Aurora shot back at his smug grin.

"Some people got it and some people don't. (everyone joined in for this line) You don't have to worry about who has it because you don't!"

"Thanks guys, I love you too." was the only come back Aurora could come up with.

They all put on evil grins and said "I know."

They all then piled into Kaibas car and he drove to the Game Shop. Yugi let them all in and they had the longest hike up the stairs in the world. When they entered the living room they saw that Grampa Moto had made up beds on the floor for each of them. There was even space for the Kaiba brothers. Which they gladly accepted being, like everybody else, to tired to care at this point. They just basically flopped down where there was room. It looked more like they were sleeping in a giant nest rather then bed rolls. The effect was quite funny. So funny in fact that Grampa Moto took a picture of them when he was sure that they were all asleep.

They woke up the next morning, Christmas Day, at around 9:00 am. They thought that it was surprisingly early considering how tired they had been the night before. They decided to ask Kurama and Yuske about it.

"Yeah, energy is funny that way." said Yuske Kurama agreed with him.

"That's interesting, not very helpful, but interesting." said Aurora After that they had breakfast, chocolate milk with corn flakes.

"Ingenious Pharaoh." said Mokuba He Shrugged.

"Just a little something, something I came up with." he replied

"Great, I get to spend the day with a group of weirdoes who are very sugar high." said Kaiba who was having eggs.

"Oh, you know that you love us." Aurora snuck up behind him and hugged him around the neck. He rolled his eyes. She let him go then mussed his hair, much to the amusement of Mokuba. All the way through breakfast Joey and Tristan kept glancing at the gifts, then when they thought no one was looking they would scoot closer.

When they thought that they were 'in range' Tea, who was not even looking at them said "Don't even think about it boys." They both jumped.

"How do you do that?" they both asked.

"I am just that darn good." she replied grinning over her shoulder at them. They growled at her. She laughed.

"Glad to see that Christmas Tradition is still around." said Atem The entire room laughed, with the exception of the two.

"Laugh it up guys." said Joey and Tristan at the same time.

Then they watched the Jim Carey version of the Grinch. No one could help themselves, they busted on Kaiba every chance they got. Even Atem chimed in every so often. Those are the ones that got the most laughs. After that they had lunch, then they opened the gifts. They saved the gifts from Atem and Kaiba for next to last. Sadly Yuske and Kurama didn't get anything because no one knew that they were coming. They didn't mind though because they had a good story to bring back home. They had gifts for everybody else though.

Yuske, trying to be funny, gave everyone a green outfit like his. Joey and Tristan found their own humor. "Cool we can all dress like Rock Lee now." they said

Yuske flopped to one side saying "Darn it! I forgot about him! Darn your love of ninjas!" Everyone laughed.

Kurama not surprisingly, had plants for everyone. There special effect reflected those he gave them to. Except Auroras, which looked like something from demon world and made dragon like sounds.

"This is a very rare plant my friend." said Kurama proudly.

"What is it?" asked Aurora The gang seemed a little nervous about getting to close to it.

"Its called the Yoko Dragoness-genus forty-two hundred." replied Kurama proudly.

"Why is it named after you?" asked Ryo

"Because I'm the one who found it." replied the fox.

"What's with the number? Is that a experiment number?" asked Kaiba

"And if it is what happened to---What did you just give us, dude?!" asked Joey Everyone put their plant at arms reach.

"Would I actually make a bad plant?" asked Kurama Everyone raised an eyebrow at him. "Alright, rephrase, would I actually make a bad plant and give it as a gift? Your plants are perfectly safe. As to the reason that Auroras plant has a name with a number in it, that was Yuske. He had just watched Disneys Lilo and Stitch and couldn't help himself." (he glanced at Yuske who shrugged) Everyone calmed down.

"And if you find that you can't handle your new plant, Aurora, you can use this on it." said Yuske handing her a small box. Aurora took it and opened it.

"Oh, I'm going to be the envy of the Ra dorm!" said Aurora spinning around and showing everyone all five Exodia cards.

"Whoa, Bastion doesn't have those and he has like six decks!" said Mokuba

"How did a non-dualist get such premo cards?" asked Aurora

"Did you threaten Pegasus?" asked Kaiba

"Would I do that?" asked Yuske

Without missing a beat the whole room said "Yes." He shrugged and never answered the question.

Kurama gave his 'cousin' a special white rose. It was special because he could use it to make a rose whip. ("Should have seen that coming." Thought everyone)

Mia laughed hysterically and gave the five boys (Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Duke and Ryo) Their gifts which were one piece of Exodia each. When asked how she got them she said "Lots of work." To the girls she gave various Harpy Lady cards.

Aurora went next, giving everyone various Dual Monsters accessories. "I shopped at my favorite store." said Aurora

"Yup, I made a bundle off of you." said Grampa Moto suddenly.

"Yeah, even with that discount. Hmmm."

To Kaiba she gave a necklace that was a perfect likeness of a Blue Eyes White Dragon. "Custom?" he asked

"Yup, I now owe Hiei a really big favor." she replied To Mokuba she gave a custom deck case and card sleeves for his deck. "Why card sleeves?" asked Mokuba

"Because it drives me crazy when one doesn't take care of his cards. Duke Devlin!" She looked over at Duke. He looked at the floor.

"You just love calling him out like that don't you?" asked Yugi Aurora nodded.

Tea gave all the guys gift certificates to their favorite restaurants. To the girls she gave gift certificates to the spa.

Yugi, Joey and Tristan gave their girlfriends jewelry. Mia nearly gave Joey a heart attack when she said "What no ring?" Also Aurora got revenge on him as she actually stared to sing 'Here Comes The Bride'. Everyone laughed they also received rare cards.

Next was Serenity. Her gift to everyone was a handmade scarf. Duke volunteered to go next. He gave everyone headbands. Teas went with the outfit she wore when she was on stage dancing. The rest of the headbands were the same. They went with the others favorite outfits. Then he got to Atem and Aurora. He pointed at them and said "Aurora I saw that at the mall the other day and thought 'its you'! And yours Atem was custom. Also, it would have been your gift if you hadn't left."

Aurora was the first to open hers. "Ahh, a certified leaf village headband!" she said excitedly "Just call me the Ninja No Hikari of the leaf." Everyone laughed.

"Alright, I guess that its my turn." said Atem He then opened the box, looked in and jumped. "Duke?!" Duke started giggling at him. Atem raised an eyebrow at him, not really knowing what to say.

"Well? What did you get?" asked Mokuba

"A most interesting headband." replied Atem taking it out to show them. The headband was designed like Auroras. Except that the plate wasn't plain steel, it was gold plated steel. And instead of the leaf village symbol landing in the middle of his forehead it turned out to be the millennium symbol!

"Ok, Auroras headband I saw coming. But that one? Nope!" said Kurama "I knew you guys watch to much Naruto."

"Oh well, I like it anyway." said the Pharaoh.

"Same here." said Aurora sticking her tongue out at him. The two of them knocked fists. When they turned to face the others they saw that they were getting stared at. The two of them then traded headbands and put them on each other. Bending the metal so it would fit correctly. Then they turned to face the guys again. They all smiled at them. Then Aurora remembered.

"Oh no! We forgot to give Kaiba his other gift! Tristan I think that its in Yugis room." As he went to get it Aurora turned to Kaiba and said "Well, it's a gift of sorts. Its an idea for a new product."

"Really? Who thought of it?" he asked

"It was a group effort. Then I had a friend of mine make the idea into blueprints." she replied as Tristan returned with rolled up papers. They went over to the coffee table and rolled it out.

"May I present: The Dual Runner. Its basically a motorcycle that is adapted to work with a dual disk. Auto pilot for dueling standard of course." explained Tristan

"Wow, Seto! This is an incredible idea!" said Mokuba

"I'm with you there little brother." said Kaiba as he stared at the blueprints.

"How did you get those blueprints made anyway?" Tristan asked Aurora quietly.

"I had to go inter-dimensional on a case a while back and made some very interesting friends. Who those friends are well you wouldn't believe me if I told you. But the friend that made those blueprints would be able to make friends with both Kaiba and Kurama, although he is not a demon. I was not in demon world."

It was then Mokubas turn, he gave everyone upgrades for their dual disks.

"Well, I guess that its my turn." said Kaiba He gave the envelope to Yugi and told him to pass it around. Inside the envelope were V.I.P. passes for Kaiba Land. He told Yuske and Kurama that he would send them some too. His brother and Aurora got an additional gift. But it was a gift that they had earned. Aurora opened the box that Kaiba handed her. She gasped then took out a dark blue blazer. "There's one back home waiting for you too Mokuba."

"We don't have to go through that stupid promotion exam!" Mokuba and Aurora said at the same time. Then Kaiba got glomped by the two of them.

"Aww, that's so cute!" laughed Grampa Moto Then he took a picture of the three of them. Everyone then laughed.

"Now for the gifts that are wrapped in essence of friendship. Atem would you do the honors?" said Yuske Atem nodded then gave him a look that none of the others saw. His reply was a shrug.

Most of the gang got lockets that looked like their favorite monsters. They looked like they were made of crystal that glowed from within with essence of friendship. "They will allow you to talk to me when, umm, I'm not around." said Atem

"I'm sensing a theme with your gifts Pharaoh." said Aurora He grinned at her. Then he tossed Kaiba the long box that was from him. Once Kaiba caught it Atem hid behind her with a big goofy grin on his face. "What are you doing?"

"Hiding." he replied

"We can see that but why?" asked Mia

"Because once he opens that he might want to hit me with it." said Atem

"So you picked me?" Aurora asked

"He won't hit you, he loves you." said Atem still grinning.

"I'm his ex remember?"

"Whoops!" said Ryo Everyone snorted.

Kaiba rolled his eyes and said "How bad could it be?"

"What did you do?" asked Yugi

Atem grinned at him. Then they all watched Kaiba open his gift.

"Your right, I am going to hit you!" said Kaiba when he saw that he had gotten a crystal version of the Millennium Rod.

"Should have seen that coming." said Joey

"You have to come out from behind her sooner or later." said Kaiba

"I pick later." replied Atem Everyone laughed. "That has the communication capabilities that all my gifts have."

"You let your cousin make that one didn't you?" asked Kurama Atem nodded. Kaiba blinked, then put the replica on his belt (much like Marik) and leaned against the wall.

"Fine I won't hit you." he said

"Lucky me." said Atem

"That thing doesn't go in to sword mode like the real one right?" asked Ryo rubbing his arm without thinking.

"Not to my knowledge." Ryo let out a sigh of relief. Then he received his gift from Atem. His little running gag was still going as he stayed behind Aurora.

"Millennium Ring replica?" she whispered

"But of course." he replied

It wasn't as sharp as the original and didn't clash with his pale complexion as much either. Ryo, after putting it on, got up and with a strange look on his face chased Atem out of his hiding place. Everyone thought he was going to hit him because Ryo suddenly grabbed him by the front of his tank top. There was a pause, then Ryo got Atem into a head lock and gave him a nuggie. Once everyone let out a sigh of relief, then started to laugh.

Yugi then got his gift. No one was surprised when it turned out to be a replica of the puzzle. He actually got a little misty at the sight of it. Atem went over to him and gave him a small hug. After a minute or two Joey popped up out of no where with Grampa Motos camera.

"Photo Opp!" he said then took a picture of the two of them. Everyones laughter was renewed. Aurora got her gift from Atem next.

"Ok, you have a gift from me too. But you have to kind of share it." said Aurora as she was opening the gift. When she saw that it was a replica of the Millennium Necklace, she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I remember that you said that, that one was your favorite, well besides the puzzle." Atem replied Aurora thought back.

"Oh yeah, I did say that." said Aurora She then tried to put her gift on Atem helped. She smiled at him. "So we can talk to you now. YAY!"

"Yup, but keep it quite I'm not so sure that these are spirit world legal. I mean Aurora is safe being the detective, but the rest of you--" he shrugged

"Don't worry, if Koeanma finds out about them I'll just tell him they are for umm, strategic emergencies."

"But there are a lot of these things." said Mia

"There are a lot of different problems that I have yet to have. They take different strategies. Different dualists, different strategies."

"Nicely put." said Kurama Yuske nodded. "Relax, we won't rat you out." They said when a few of the dualists raised an eyebrow at them.

"Alright, now its my turn." said Grampa Moto suddenly Everyone looked at him. "You know that old shed in the back yard?"

All the people who knew of it nodded. "Well, I made an arcade out of it for you guys. I just need some quite." he added jokingly

"Well, that's what your going to get. This is from all of us, and I mean all of us." said Yugi as he handed his Grandfather a thick envelope. He opened it to see all the fixings for a month long trip to the Amazon.

"Why not Egypt?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Do you think your going to be allowed near Ishizu again? I think not." said Aurora (She blamed her for Atems departing.)

"Methinks you are still sore at her." said Grampa Moto trying not to grin.

"Just a bit." replied Aurora shrugging.

"Well, I think this is a great gift guys." He then hugged everyone who would let him. After that the gang decided to check out their private arcade.

On the way out Atem asked "So, what was the gift that you had for me?"

Aurora reached into her backpack and pulled out Atems last bag of shadow sugar. "I tripped over it last night on a bathroom trip." she whispered to him. Then she handed it to him when she was sure the guys were watching. They ran at Atem, hoping to get it off him. He ran for it laughing his head off. Then he ate some and started a snowball fight.

Over the course of the snowball fight the bag got passed around. Everyone was very hyper when they went into their new arcade. It was dinner time when they came out. They were still hyper and had another snowball fight. When this one was over the sugar was wearing off.

"The good thing about shadow sugar is it doesn't make you fall asleep when it wares off, which is why I created it in the first place." he stopped speaking for a moment to giggle along with the rest of them. "The bad thing about it is it causes, for some strange reason, involuntary giggling." They giggled themselves right back into the house.

Grampa Moto took look at them and asked "Shadow sugar?" They nodded, he shook his head at them. Then they ate dinner and watched 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. When one of the many songs came on some shadow sugar induced singing happened. When the movie ended everyone agreed that the singing never happened. After that the Kaiba brothers left. Then the rest of the gang went to sleep in their giant nest.

The next morning they woke up to Auroras academy P.D.A. going off. When Aurora first sat up she looked and made sure that Atem was still there. To her great surprise he was. Then she answered the P.D.A. "Hey, Aurora when are you coming back?!" It was her friend. A Ra yellow named Syrus. "We have gifts for you! And we are planning a huge party for New Years. So you have to be back by then. Umm, your Domino City friends are invited too. See you then, bye!"

"New Years? Isn't that on a Saturday?" asked Kurama winking at Ryo.

"Why yes it is. You know you never did give me an answer about any Saturday." said Ryo winking at Aurora. By then everybody was listening.

"Ok Ryo, I'll be your date for the academy New Years party." Aurora replied Without thinking Ryo glomped her.

"You got it bad, don't you?" asked Mia Ryo blushed and got up. Aurora sat up with a questioning look on her face.

"Urm, sorry about that." said Ryo

"Relax, I know your not a perv." said Aurora "What dose Mia mean?"

"He's crushing on you big time and has been for a long time." said Mia before Ryo had a chance to speak. He flinched expecting her to laugh or something similar.

"Hmm, lucky me." said Aurora smiling. She then got up and surprised the gang as she kissed him on the cheek. He hammed it up and pretended to faint. Everyone laughed. Then he got up and hugged her around the shoulders.

"Aww!" said everyone

"Shut it." the two of them said jokingly

"Oh, and no one can tell Kaiba, he can't find out about the party until he brings Mokuba and I back to the academy." said Aurora

"Why?" asked Serenity

"Because Jaydens parties tend to go a bit over the top and he might try to stop it. We can't let that happen now can we?"

"Nope!" replied the gang

"So about this party?" said Botans voice suddenly. She was standing behind where everyone was sitting. Everyone jumped violently and then they all stood up at warp speed and forced Atem to the back of the group. Botan, it seemed, didn't notice. "Am I invited?"

Aurora grinned. "Sure, as long as Atem can come and you have to disguise yourself as an academy student."

"I have to meet both of those requirements?" asked Botan Everyone grinned and nodded. Without missing a beat she said "Agreed."

"In the words of my friend Jayden Yuki: SWEETNESS!!" said Aurora. "Oh, and on a side note, stop sneaking up on us like that Botan!"

"Well, I have my own side note. Atem is coming back next Christmas too." said Botan smiling

"Really? Don't toy with us Botan." said Joey

"I'm not!" said Botan

"What would happen if I got fired for some reason?" asked Aurora with a suspicious look in her eyes. Botan blinked.

"I would escape and come anyway." said Atem grinning in a way that said that he wasn't kidding. Everyone grinned back at him.

"And I would let you." said Botan smartly.

"I knew there was a reason that I liked you." said Atem winking. They all laughed. Then he leaned over and whispered to everyone. "Don't tell her that we will all dress in our new ninja gear."

"I like the way you think." said Duke

"Speaking of ninjas, I'm going to use them as an excuse to come and see you guys."

"How?" everyone asked

"I'm going to teach Aurora how to do the moves that I showed you, of course." replied the Pharaoh cunningly.

"I really like the way you think!" said Aurora They all laughed evilly, much to the confusion of Botan. She didn't ask because she figured that she would find out soon enough and why should she ruin her day.

They all then ate breakfast. Then they spent a few hours in the Moto Arcade. It was not until after lunch that Atem and Botan left. Everyone was smiling as their best Christmas ever came to an end.

~ OWARI ~

Authors Note: This story was inspired by another fanfic that promised a sad, but warm and fuzzy ending. I read said fic and nearly cried at the end. So I wrote this, which dose have a warm and fuzzy ending. I don't mean any disrespect at all to that writer because other then that the fic was really good. I'd now like to give a shout out to the author Mittens No Hikari. The one who I took the Dark World Thorns from. I recommend that writers story "Fading". In my opinion it's good. Send in reviews, but no flames please. I'm sensitive. (turns into a chibi and looks up at the readers pleadingly) Depending on the reviews you might see more of the new spirit detective.


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